Strategy Sells Bitcoin for First Time Since 2022
CNBC reported Monday that Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor’s firm sold bitcoin last week for only the second time in its history. The sale, totaling $2.5 million worth of the asset, marks a significant departure from the company’s long-held “never sell” doctrine.
Strategy Sells 32 Coins at $77,135 Average
Between May 26 and May 31, Strategy offloaded 32 bitcoin at an average price of $77,135 per coin, according to a regulatory filing cited by CNBC. The company simultaneously raised $128.3 million by selling roughly 802,000 shares of common stock over the same period. Shares of the company dropped more than 6% in premarket trading following the disclosure. Bitcoin itself slipped around 2% on the news, touching its lowest price since mid-April.
The proceeds from the bitcoin sale were directed toward funding distributions on the company’s preferred stock, STRC. That instrument pays investors a yield backed by Strategy’s bitcoin-heavy balance sheet. The broader goal is to convert the firm’s bitcoin holdings into what it describes as a credit engine, allowing it to grow its overall stack more efficiently than a simple buy-and-hold approach.
A Shift Away From “Never Sell”
Earlier in May, Strategy CEO Phong Le outlined a revised capital allocation philosophy on the company’s earnings call. He described the firm’s objective as growing “bitcoin per share” over total bitcoin holdings, calling it the most accretive long-term approach for shareholders. That framework explicitly allows for bitcoin sales if doing so improves per-share metrics, funds income distributions, or otherwise strengthens the balance sheet.
The change signals a meaningful evolution in how Strategy manages its position, which has made it one of the largest corporate holders of bitcoin globally.
The Last Sale Came During the 2022 Crypto Collapse
The only prior instance of Strategy selling bitcoin came in December 2022, a turbulent period for digital assets. That moment coincided with aggressive Federal Reserve rate hikes, the implosion of the FTX exchange, and cascading failures across interconnected crypto lending platforms. Bitcoin has since recovered substantially from those lows, though it currently sits more than 42% below its all-time high above $126,000.
Adding to the cautious backdrop, bitcoin ETFs recorded their tenth consecutive day of net outflows on Friday, the longest such streak on record, suggesting that institutional appetite has softened in recent weeks.
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