Strategy CEO Phong Le said the company made the right call when it sold Bitcoin at lower prices and later bought back at higher ones, defending the moves as financing decisions rather than directional bets on BTC.
That was one of the main takeaways in Decrypt’s September 3 edition of Morning Minute, a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The newsletter notes that the analysis and opinions in the piece are Warner’s own and do not necessarily reflect Decrypt’s views.
Strategy says price was not the key input
According to the report, Strategy sold 6,916 BTC in four tranches from late June through mid-August at a weighted average price near $62,200. Last week, it bought 4,603 BTC at an average price of $80,318. Appearing on Bloomberg Crypto on Wednesday, Le said both decisions were correct.
His argument was that Bitcoin’s market price was not the main variable behind the trades. Strategy sold BTC to fund STRC dividends because issuing shares had become expensive at the time. It is buying again now because MSTR has returned to trading at a premium. Over that two-month pause, the company increased assets to $72 billion, built roughly $7 billion in dollar reserves, and reduced net debt from about $7 billion to zero. In Le’s framing, a stronger balance sheet lowers the cost of equity issuance, and cheaper equity issuance helps make Bitcoin purchases work again.
Le says the sale was small relative to holdings
Le also pushed back on how large the market had made the story. The sale amounted to less than 1% of Strategy’s holdings, the newsletter said, while total holdings have grown 25% to 30% this year. Strategy now holds 845,050 BTC worth roughly $65.4 billion.
He went a step further in describing the business model. A one-way accumulator, he said, is not a full operating company. In his view, buying and selling Bitcoin, equity, and preferred shares is what makes one. He described Strategy as a two-way capital management company.
STRC sits at the center of the funding setup
The report identifies STRC as the key mechanism in that structure. It described STRC as a variable-rate preferred that Strategy adjusts to keep close to its $100 stated value. When it slipped below par in June, that funding route closed, and Bitcoin became the company’s only real option to try to push for a repeg. The newsletter added that STRC still has not repegged.
Warner wrote that Le is right to call it a financing decision, but he also said the company’s Bitcoin purchases depend on its stock premium, and that premium depends on Bitcoin itself. He characterized the arrangement as a difficult three-body problem to manage and argued that Strategy has clearly chosen the worst deal for MSTR equity holders. He added that if the market turns bullish, all of the moves could still pay off.
Crypto and macro market snapshot
Major cryptocurrencies were higher on the day. BTC was up 1.3% at $77,900, ETH rose 1% to $2,400, SOL gained 2% to $101, and HYPE was flat at $82. The newsletter said large crypto assets were broadly up 2% to 3%.
Among top altcoin movers, PONS rose 36%, ARB climbed 25%, and LIT added 10%.
In broader markets, oil rose 3% to $93 and gold was up 2 at $4,470. Stock futures were flat as bond yields cooled, with the Dow up 0.1% and the Nasdaq down 0.2%.
Glassnode said Bitcoin remains range-bound until it absorbs the $83,000 to $86,000 band, where about 1.05 million coins held by long-term holders sit near breakeven. It identified $62,000 to $65,000 as the floor.
Exchanges, stablecoins, and legal developments
Kraken parent Payward pushed its IPO timeline to no earlier than the second quarter of 2027, extending a freeze that began in March after a confidential filing in November 2025.
Binance recorded more than $1 billion in stablecoin inflows in August, reversing a 2026 trend that had previously seen more than $6 billion in outflows.
HYPE entered a U.S. crypto index ETF for the first time, joining Hashdex’s NCIQ with a 3.4% weighting. It is now the fund’s fifth-largest holding behind Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana.
In the U.S. legal arena, New Jersey asked the Supreme Court to decide whether states can police sports contracts in prediction markets. The filing is described as the first such petition after a split between the Third and Ninth Circuits on the issue.
Separately, two Thai businessmen sued Tether over a $42.4 million USDT freeze. They said the freeze came at the informal request of a Homeland Security agent more than three months before any seizure warrant was issued.
ETF flows and treasury-related moves
Spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $101 million in net inflows on Wednesday. Spot Ethereum ETFs, by contrast, saw $48 million in net outflows, ending a three-week run of inflows.
Meme coins and chain activity
Meme coin leaders were mostly higher by 2% to 4%. DOGE gained 3%, SHIB rose 2%, PEPE added 2%, PENGU was flat, TRUMP climbed 2%, and SPX fell 3%.
On Robinhood Chain, token activity was especially strong as Pons surged. PONS jumped 43%, Cashcat rose 1%, AI climbed 25%, Index gained 72%, and Microduck added 25%. Nudes, Peptides, and Hotdog were also listed among notable movers.
On Solana, Useless rose 50% and TripleT gained 30%, while Ansem was flat at a $240 million market cap.
Token, airdrop, and protocol tracker
Robinhood Chain generated $4 million in chain revenue for the first time, according to the newsletter. Its DEX volumes hit $1.8 billion, and RWA chain value reached $100 million, both new all-time highs.
Pons also set fresh records in daily trading volume at $544 million and daily revenue at $1.1 million, while adding $880,000 to its buyback fund.
Pump.fun posted $1.8 million in daily revenue. Hyperliquid generated $1.73 million.
NFT market was mostly flat
NFT leaders were broadly unchanged. CryptoPunks fell 1% to 31.5 ETH, BAYC dropped 1% to 7.45 ETH, and Pudgy gained 1% to 3.9 ETH.
Top NFT movers included Argonauts, up 35%, Identity MD, up 40%, and Chain Mancers, up 20%.