Strategy’s Michael Saylor plans tactical Bitcoin sale, hints at larger buy

Michael Saylor, the man who turned a mid-tier software company into the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin piggy bank, is doing something he swore he’d never do: selling Bitcoin.

But before anyone panics, here’s the thing. Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, plans to sell roughly 0.2% of its Bitcoin holdings per month while simultaneously buying back five to ten times that amount.

The tactical sell that isn’t really a sell

During Strategy’s Q1 2026 earnings call on May 5, Saylor laid out the new playbook. The company, which held over 818,000 BTC at the time of the call, would begin modest monthly sales to generate cash for dividends on its STRC perpetual preferred stock.

“Even if we were to sell one Bitcoin, we’d be buying 10 to 20 more Bitcoin.”

Between May 26 and May 31, Strategy executed its first Bitcoin sale since 2022, offloading exactly 32 BTC for approximately $2.5 million at an average price of roughly $77,135 per coin. That 32 BTC represents about 0.004% of the company’s total holdings.

By early June 2026, Strategy’s Bitcoin stash had grown to over 843,000 BTC, with later filings confirming 846,842 BTC. The company’s average cost basis sits between $75,000 and $75,700 per coin, reflecting years of aggressive accumulation dating back to 2020 when Saylor first pivoted the company’s treasury strategy toward Bitcoin.

Why sell at all?

The short answer: preferred stock dividends need to be paid in dollars, not satoshis. Strategy has been raising capital through various instruments, including its STRC perpetual preferred stock, which come with cash dividend obligations requiring actual fiat currency.

Rather than focusing purely on total Bitcoin held, Saylor wants investors to evaluate how much Bitcoin each share of Strategy stock represents. If the company sells 0.2% of its Bitcoin monthly but buys back five to ten times that amount through capital-raising efforts, the Bitcoin-per-share ratio actually increases over time.

Saylor emphasized during the earnings call that Strategy plans to be a “net buyer of Bitcoin in every month and every quarter going on forever.”

What this means for investors

For Bitcoin market participants, the immediate impact of Strategy’s sales is negligible. Thirty-two BTC in a market that trades billions of dollars daily is a rounding error.

Strategy isn’t reducing its position. The company added over 25,000 BTC between the May 5 earnings call and early June, pushing from 818,000 to over 843,000 BTC.

For Strategy stockholders specifically, the Bitcoin-per-share metric that Saylor keeps highlighting deserves close attention. If the company can consistently grow that number, the stock functions as a leveraged Bitcoin proxy with yield.

Strategy’s average cost basis of roughly $75,000 per BTC means the company is currently sitting on unrealized gains, but a sustained Bitcoin downturn could turn those modest monthly sales into more significant liquidations if dividend obligations remain fixed while Bitcoin’s price drops. Strategy has one asset, one thesis, and 846,842 BTC — a position worth well over $60B at current prices.

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