Bitcoin’s $2.5B Liquidation Shock Puts Michael Saylor’s Strategy Under The Microscope

Bitcoin’s sudden break below $80,000 in the past 24 hours has led to one of the most violent liquidation events in crypto history. Traders digest the fallout from this crash, but there is much attention on large institutional holders, particularly Michael Saylor’s Strategy, whose massive Bitcoin position is now trading uncomfortably close to its average acquisition cost.

Why This Bitcoin Crash Turned Brutal So Quickly

The entire crypto industry is currently witnessing one of its most brutal crashes in history, led by Bitcoin and Ethereum. Notably, about $2.51 billion in leveraged positions were wiped out in a single session, placing this event among the 10 largest liquidation cascades the crypto market has ever recorded. For context, the Covid-era crash liquidated about $1.2 billion and the FTX collapse led to around $1.6 billion in liquidations.

Crypto Liquidation History. Source: @AshCrypto On X

According to Arkham Intelligence, large entities aggressively moved Bitcoin onto exchanges in the hours surrounding the crash. Kraken alone dumped about 17,030 BTC into the market, Binance followed with about 12,147 BTC, and Coinbase added another 9,093 BTC. Wintermute, a major market maker, dumped 3,491 BTC, while wallets labeled as Trump Insider and Bybit dumped 2,543 BTC and 2,471 BTC, respectively. 

Together, these transfers contributed to a streak of liquidations as positions that saw Bitcoin lose the $80,000 price level without much resistance.

Bitcoin’s Notable Outflows. Source: Arkham Intelligence

Strategy’s Bitcoin Chest And Where It Stands Now

As one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin, Strategy has felt the impact of the recent crash more directly than most, leaving its Bitcoin position hovering just above loss territory. 

The company currently holds 712,647 BTC, valued at $55.72 billion based on current price levels. Those holdings were accumulated at an average price of $76,037 per Bitcoin, putting Strategy only about 1.8% above breakeven following the sell-off.

The margin for error has narrowed massively, but the holdings are still technically in profit for now. To put this in context, Strategy’s stash was worth about $81 billion when Bitcoin peaked around $126,000, despite the company holding about 70,000 fewer BTC at the time.

It has now been 2,000 days since Strategy formally adopted the Bitcoin Standard. That decision has progressively connected the company’s financial performance to Bitcoin’s price action.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $78,500. A further decline of 3% from current levels would be enough to push Strategy’s Bitcoin position into the red on paper and change the narrative from unrealized gains to unrealized losses. In that scenario, the company may soon find itself defending its Bitcoin strategy in a bearish environment.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView