Strategy's Phong Le Defends Buying Bitcoin At $80K After Selling Near $60K: ‘Right Trade’

• Strategy CEO Phong Le defended buying Bitcoin near $80,000 after selling in the $60,000 range on Tuesday.
• He called it the "right trade" and pointed to cost of capital, not price, as the deciding factor for the purchases.
• Alliance Global initiated coverage of Strategy with a ‘Buy’ rating and raised the stock's price target to $217.

Strategy’s (MSTR) decision to sell Bitcoin (BTC) in the 60,000 range, only to resume buying near $80,000, may look like a costly case of selling low and buying high, but to CEO Phong Le it was the ‘right trade” to make at the time.

When asked about the sell-low, buy-high sequence during an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday, Le defended the decision, saying Strategy did not make Bitcoin decisions based on price alone. 

He pointed to the company's balance sheet over the past two months, during which Strategy grew its total assets to $72 billion, including $65 billion in Bitcoin holdings and $7 billion in U.S. dollar reserves, marking a 34% increase in that span. 

Lee said that a rapidly strengthened balance sheet, now holding $72 billion in assets, including $65 billion in Bitcoin and $7 billion in dollar reserves, gave the company more flexibility to sell MSTR shares at a premium and put those proceeds back into Bitcoin. 

Strategy Calls Its Bitcoin Management ‘Two-Way’

Le pushed back on the idea that the roughly 7,000 Bitcoin sold to fund preferred dividends and buybacks, which accounted for less than 1% of the company's holdings, signaled any retreat from accumulation. He noted that Strategy had grown its Bitcoin holdings by as much as 30% this year. 

He described the firm’s approach as a "two-way strategy," arguing that a company not willing to sell Bitcoin was not a “true operating” business. According to Le, Strategy intended to keep buying at higher levels, including $90,000, $100,000 and beyond, telling Bloomberg that he expected a $130,000 Bitcoin purchase to eventually look like a good trade once the price climbs further.

A Push Back On MSCI Proposal

Le also addressed a letter he and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor sent to index provider Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) on Monday, opposing a proposal to exclude non-operating asset companies, including Bitcoin treasury firms, from its Global Investable Market Indexes. Le called the move “discriminatory, arbitrary and misguided,” saying it goes against U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and U.S. accounting standards that already view Bitcoin as an operating asset.

His comments came as MSTR stock was down by 0.70% during pre-market trading hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around MSTR stayed in the ‘bullish’ zone, while chatter around it stayed at ‘normal’ levels over the past day.

MSTR Stock: Wall Street Sees More Room To Run

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Alliance Global initiated coverage of Strategy with a ‘Buy’ rating and a $217 price target the same day, pointing to the company's 845,050 Bitcoin holdings, roughly 4% of the cryptocurrency's total supply, as a core part of the bull case. From Tuesday’s close of $124, Alliance Global’s price target puts it at around 75% upside.

The analyst told investors it expected a "bull run" in Bitcoin over the next six to 18 months as scarcity and demand build alongside a clearer regulatory picture, adding that Strategy's yield-generation strategy has helped it outperform Bitcoin itself.

Bitcoin’s price was down by 0.8% during the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around BTC remained in the ‘neutral’ zone, while chatter around it stayed at ‘normal’ levels over the past day.

Read also: Nasdaq Futures Slip As Rising Iran Tensions, Oil, Treasury Yields Keep Wall Street On Edge: NVDA, DELL, CRDO, NIO, RKLB, MSTR In Focus

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com