Strategy, the company known for its massive bitcoin holdings, has sold 3,588 BTC worth about $216 million. The company, led by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, said the money will be used to pay dividends to investors who own its preferred stock and to restore part of its cash reserve.

After the sale, Strategy now owns 843,775 bitcoin. The company also said it now has $2.55 billion in cash as of July 5. According to its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the bitcoin sale helped replace cash that had already been used for dividend payments.

The company sold the bitcoin in two batches between June 29 and July 5. It first sold 1,363 bitcoin at an average price of about $59,256 each. It then sold another 2,225 bitcoin at an average price of about $60,773 per coin.

Strategy also said it did not sell any new company shares or buy back its own stock during the week. It added that it still has the full $1.25 billion available under its new BTC Monetization Program, which allows it to sell more bitcoin if needed.

This sale is much bigger than Strategy's previous bitcoin sale in late May, when it sold only 32 BTC for about $2.5 million. Before that, the company had not sold any bitcoin since a tax-related transaction in 2022.

For many years, Strategy was known for buying bitcoin and holding it without selling. However, these recent sales show that the company is now willing to use some of its bitcoin to help manage its finances when necessary.

Strategy said the money from this latest sale was used to pay dividends on several preferred stock products, including STRF, STRE, STRK, STRD, and STRC.

The sale comes shortly after Strategy introduced a new financial plan on June 29. Under this plan, the company can sell up to $1.25 billion worth of bitcoin to help pay dividends. It also approved a $2 billion stock buyback program and increased the annual dividend on its STRC preferred stock to 12%.

Even after selling some BTC, Strategy remains the largest corporate holder of bitcoin in the world. The company bought its 843,775 bitcoin for about $63.7 billion, paying an average of around $75,476 for each coin.

Since bitcoin is currently trading below that average purchase price, Strategy reported an unrealized loss of $8.32 billion for the second quarter. This does not mean the company actually lost that amount in cash. It simply reflects the current market value of its bitcoin holdings.

The news affected both bitcoin and Strategy's stock price. After the announcement, bitcoin briefly fell below $62,000, while Strategy shares dropped between 2% and 5% in pre-market trading.

Some investors see these bitcoin sales as a sign that Strategy is changing its long-time approach of simply buying and holding bitcoin. Even so, the company sold only about 0.42% of its total bitcoin holdings. The latest sale was much larger than the one in May, but it still represents only a small part of its overall reserves.

Analysts believe Strategy is still in a strong financial position. Analysts say the company has enough cash to cover dividend payments and interest costs for many months. Also, Strategy's debt is small compared with the value of its bitcoin holdings.