{"id":27737,"date":"2026-05-06T17:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/michael-saylor-breaks-strategys-never-sell-bitcoin-pledge\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T17:41:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:41:20","slug":"michael-saylor-breaks-strategys-never-sell-bitcoin-pledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/michael-saylor-breaks-strategys-never-sell-bitcoin-pledge\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Saylor breaks Strategy\u2019s never-sell bitcoin pledge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">Michael Saylor said Strategy will \u201cprobably sell some bitcoin\u201d to pay dividends, marking the first public reversal of the firm\u2019s long-held never-sell position.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cn-block-summary-block_4ff1459f6cbd147d718da778778f10e9\" class=\"cn-block-summary\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__nav tabs\">\n        <span class=\"tabs__item is-selected\">Summary<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor floated selling bitcoin to fund dividend obligations during the company\u2019s Q1 2026 earnings call on May 5.<\/li>\n<li>Strategy holds 818,334 BTC and faces approximately $1.5 billion in annual dividend obligations across its preferred stock instruments.<\/li>\n<li>MSTR stock fell more than 4% in after-hours trading following the call, while bitcoin briefly dipped below $81,000.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-summary --><\/p>\n<p>Strategy, the largest publicly traded corporate holder of bitcoin, may sell a portion of its holdings to cover dividend payments, executive chairman Michael Saylor said during the company\u2019s Q1 2026 earnings call on May 5. The statement marks the first time the firm has publicly walked back the never-sell position Saylor has repeatedly asserted over several years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will probably sell some bitcoin to pay a dividend just to inoculate the market and send the message that we did it,\u201d Saylor said on the call. He framed the approach as deliberate: \u201cYou buy bitcoin with credit, you let it appreciate, and then you sell bitcoin to pay the dividend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Q1 results and market reaction<\/h2>\n<p>Strategy reported a $12.54 billion net loss for Q1 2026. The company holds 818,334 BTC, acquired at an average cost of $75,537 per coin. Its preferred stock instruments carry combined annual dividend obligations of approximately $1.5 billion, including the 11.5% STRC product, which has scaled to $8.5 billion in outstanding market value.<\/p>\n<p>MSTR stock fell more than 4% in after-hours trading following the call. Bitcoin slipped below $81,000. Despite the reaction, Saylor pushed back on short-seller theses during the call: \u201cIf you\u2019re a short seller and your thesis is the company\u2019s got to sell equity in order to fund the dividends, I would like nothing better than to rip your wings off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Strategy has previously stated it would not sell bitcoin under any circumstances, with Saylor describing it as a permanent, appreciating reserve. <\/p>\n<p>The company has raised $11.68 billion year-to-date in 2026 through equity and preferred stock offerings to fund bitcoin purchases. The new signal that direct bitcoin sales are now on the table represents a meaningful shift in the firm\u2019s capital allocation strategy.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Saylor said Strategy will \u201cprobably sell some bitcoin\u201d to pay dividends, marking the first public reversal of the firm\u2019s long-held never-sell position. Summary Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor floated&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27738,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27737\/revisions\/27738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}