Bitcoin fell to $73,708 in late Sunday trading, its lowest price since August, and the drop has carried the token below the average price paid by the world's largest corporate holder. Strategy, the software company that has built its identity around accumulating bitcoin, now holds coins worth less than it paid for them.

Reuters reported that bitcoin lost more than 2% in the late-Sunday session, while ether fell about 5% to $2,223, also its weakest level since August. Investors are braced for tougher regulation from a Democratic-controlled US Congress, and crypto markets are still absorbing the shock of a reported $6 billion heist at Binance, the world's biggest exchange.

The slide matters most for Strategy because of the scale of its bet. The company reported holding 849,327 bitcoins as of November 1, bought for a total of $64.08 billion, an average of $75,451 per coin. At $73,708, that holding would be worth about $62.6 billion, roughly $1.5 billion less than the company paid. It is a paper loss, not a realised one, and nothing in the company's filings suggests a forced sale, but the cushion that once ran into billions has gone.

The crossing happened in the early hours of Monday. Bitcoin traded at $74,863 on Coinbase and $74,660 on Binance against Strategy's $75,451 average cost, putting the position about $672 million under water at that point, before the price fell further toward $73,708.

Forced selling added to the pressure. Data provider TRdesk recorded $830.7 million in crypto liquidations across 13 exchanges in the 24 hours to 22:10 UTC on November 8, including $230.8 million in bitcoin positions, almost all of them traders who had bet on higher prices. A liquidation map showed about $40.4 million of bitcoin long positions clustered near $73,317, close to where the price was trading, meaning further small falls could trigger another round of automatic selling.

Strategy's executive chairman, Michael Saylor, posted his familiar bitcoin accumulation chart on Sunday with the caption "Connecting the dots", a routine that has often preceded the company's Monday acquisition disclosures. The post confirmed nothing: no purchase, no amount and no price. Any new buying would only be confirmed in the company's next filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which typically lands on a Monday.

The company's most recent purchase, disclosed on November 2, was 811 bitcoins bought between October 26 and November 1 for about $65.5 million, at an average of $80,846 per coin including fees. Those coins are now roughly $7,000 under water each. The purchase was funded by selling 1,178,552 common shares through the company's at-the-market programme, raising $164 million in net proceeds.

Strategy's shares closed at $128.93 on Friday, November 6. The wider backdrop is also unhelpful: US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded about $1.28 billion in net withdrawals during November 2 to 6, including $411.9 million on Friday alone, according to market assessments.

Another date looms for Strategy shareholders. MSCI is expected to announce its index review decisions on November 11, with a question hanging over whether companies with large digital-asset treasury holdings should stay eligible for certain equity indexes. Strategy has previously estimated that index-tracking funds hold about 13 million of its shares, around 3.1% of its basic outstanding shares.

For now, the company's treasury sits under water for the first time in months, and the market's next test comes on Tuesday, when the United States releases October consumer price inflation data.