Strategy's (MSTR) recent bitcoin trades suggest the company is attempting to find its footing amid bitcoin's bear-market slide, which raises questions about its capital markets strategy.

Alongside today's news of $216 million worth of bitcoin sales, the company also disclosed that it had booked an "unrealized" loss of $8.31 billion on its bitcoin holdings in the second quarter as the price fell from about $68,000 on April 1 to close June at roughly $60,000. While it took a "realized" loss of $0.9 million. An unrealized loss occurs when the total value of an asset depreciates on the balance sheet, without selling it. Realized losses are booked when assets are sold at a price lower than their carrying amount.

The main culprit for the billions of "paper losses" thus far has been a dramatic decline in the price of bitcoin from $74,000 in late May — when Strategy sold a tiny 32 bitcoin — to below $58,000 last week. A bounce back to about the $64,000 over the July 4 weekend was cut short Monday by the sale of 3,558 bitcoin. In between, Michael Saylor and team purchased 3,657 bitcoin at significantly higher prices.