Bitcoin investment company Strategy has changed its bitcoin holding strategy. It said it would sell bitcoin if needed to raise bitcoin value per share. CNBC reported on May 6 that the move marks a step back from Executive Chairman and founder Michael Saylor (마이클 세일러)’s longstanding stance of “never selling.”

Strategy said in its latest earnings release that it will manage its balance sheet more actively, rather than simply piling up bitcoin, with the goal of maximising bitcoin value per share. That means it will focus on increasing bitcoin exposure per share, rather than expanding total bitcoin holdings.

CEO Phong Le (퐁 리) said on the earnings conference call that if it helps bitcoin value per share, the company could consider selling bitcoin to secure dollars or buying back debt. He added that the company would sell bitcoin if it benefits the company and would no longer maintain the position that it will never sell bitcoin. He also set out a plan to keep increasing its total bitcoin holdings on a net basis.

The change comes alongside weaker first-quarter results. Strategy posted a net loss of $12.5 billion in the first quarter due to a decline in bitcoin prices at the start of the year. In December last year, it built a dollar reserve to prepare for preferred dividend payments and interest payments on existing debt, and it now stands at $2.25 billion. Strategy has funded bitcoin purchases through new share issuance and debt financing.

The stock fell 3 percent in after-hours trading. An unofficial metric used by Strategy, “bitcoin per share,” refers to the amount of bitcoin the company holds relative to the number of shares outstanding. The figure can change depending on additional bitcoin purchases, new share issuance, debt management or bitcoin sales to fund share buybacks.

As of the end of the first quarter, Strategy held 818,334 BTC. The acquisition cost was $61.81 billion, with an average purchase price of about $75,500 per coin. That is nearly 4 percent of total bitcoin supply. The amount it has bought this year is about 63,000 BTC. It put BTC yield since the start of the year at about 9 percent, a metric that shows how much bitcoin holdings have increased relative to the number of shares.