Risk of 'Significant Drawdowns' Pushes Cypherpunk Holdings to Sell Entire Stash of Bitcoin and Ethereum

On Tuesday, the Canada-based investment firm Cypherpunk Holdings Inc. announced that the company has sold all of its bitcoin and ethereum due to the “risk of further significant drawdowns.” The company has transitioned its treasury to cash after selling 214.72 bitcoin and 205.82 ethereum as Cypherpunk Holdings continues “to see systemic risks propagating” across the crypto economy.

Cypherpunk Holdings Sells All of the Bitcoin and Ethereum on Its Balance Sheet

Crypto winter has done a lot of damage since the bull run’s price highs, as more than $2 trillion has left the digital currency economy since the first week of November 2021. Today, the crypto economy is worth roughly $945 billion and bitcoin (BTC) is coasting along just above the $20K per unit range.

BTC is down more than 70% from the all-time high ($69K) on November 10, 2021, and ethereum (ETH) has lost more than 77% since the ATH ($4,878) recorded on the same day. On June 28, 2022, or eight months later, the publicly listed Canadian investment company Cypherpunk Holdings revealed it had dumped all of its bitcoin and ether holdings.

Cypherpunk Holdings (CSE: HODL) (OTC Pink: CYFRF) was one of the many publicly listed companies that held bitcoin and ethereum on its balance sheet. The update from the company notes that the sale was due to risk and it said the crypto economy may see “significant drawdowns” going forward.

Cypherpunk Holdings sold approximately 214.7203 BTC and 205.8209 ETH and it got around $4,927,000 for the lot of crypto assets. The company said that it currently has just over $14 million worth of “cash and stables” on hand. After the sale, the CEO and president of Cypherpunk Holdings, Jeff Gao, spoke about dumping the digital assets for cash.

“Recently, Cypherpunk liquidated all of its treasury holdings in BTC and ETH for cash and withdrew back to custody,” Gao wrote in an update concerning the company’s cryptocurrency holdings and strategy.

“We continue to see systemic risks propagating throughout the crypto ecosystem and, in our assessment of the risk reward and opportunity costs involved in holding asset tokens, we believe that the most prudent approach is to sit on the sidelines as we wait for the volatility and illiquidity contagion to come to its logical conclusion,” Gao said. “On the balance of probabilities, we see weaker price action opening the way to lower levels to come as reports of the number of chains imposing ‘temporary’ suspension on withdrawals increases.”

The Cypherpunk Holdings executive continued by adding:

Until such a time as our thesis on market conditions change, our treasury will remain in cash. Cypherpunk maintains its long-term bullish outlook on crypto and currently plans to actively seek to capitalize on compelling risk reward opportunities as and when they present.

Company Sold 196.74 Bitcoin and 382 Ether Prior to the June 28 Announcement and Amid the Terra LUNA Fallout

Furthermore, Cypherpunk Holdings dumped bitcoin (BTC) before the June 28 announcement, as it told investors on June 13 that it sold 96.74 BTC for $2.9 million and 50 ETH for $100K. Cypherpunk Holdings’ management also decided to unload shares of Animoca Brands, as it sold the company’s last block of 500,000 Animoca shares for “a realized profit of 234%.” Amid the Terra LUNA and UST fallout, on May 11, 2022, Cypherpunk Holdings sold 100 BTC and 332 ETH for just over $4 million.

With Cypherpunk Holdings removed from the Bitcoin Treasuries list, and Microstrategy’s recent purchase of 480 bitcoins, publicly-listed companies hold 268,357 BTC worth 5.382 billion at current bitcoin exchange rates. Exchange-traded products hold 828,641 BTC, countries hold 50,699 BTC, and private companies own 174,381 BTC, according to the Bitcoin Treasuries list on June 29.