Strategy Pushes Back on Viral $5 Billion Bitcoin Sale Claim
Saylor says the figure comes from an earlier public capital plan, not a new decision. Strategy is still committed to its BTC treasury strategy, but it no longer rules out limited sales.
Key Takeaways
- Michael Saylor says the viral claim that Strategy would sell $5 billion in Bitcoin is misleading and points back to an earlier public capital plan.
- The June plan includes a BTC Monetization Program that allows sales but does not require them, and it covers cash reserves, buybacks, and dividend costs.
- Strategy has sold Bitcoin again since 2022, used the proceeds for dividends, and Saylor says it still expects to be a net BTC buyer over time.
Michael Saylor has dismissed the viral claim that Strategy would sell $5 billion (€4.4 billion) worth of Bitcoin, saying it is being repackaged as breaking news even though it is not new. In his view, the figure did not come from a sudden policy shift. It came from a capital plan the company already disclosed on June 29.
Where That $5 Billion (€4.4 Billion) Came From
Most of the weekend debate focused on a single number. Posts on X claimed that MicroStrategy, now Strategy, had been given approval to sell as much as $5 billion (€4.4 billion) in Bitcoin. Saylor said that interpretation is off, since the amount was already laid out in the plan weeks ago and does not mean the company is required to sell BTC.
The June plan includes a BTC Monetization Program. That framework makes sales possible, but it does not force them. The four parts of the plan total about $5.01 billion (€4.4 billion): $1.25 billion (€1.1 billion) to rebuild the cash reserve, $1 billion (€0.9 billion) to repurchase preferred shares, $1 billion (€0.9 billion) to buy back common shares, and about $1.76 billion (€1.5 billion) a year in dividend and interest expenses.
By the end of May, that cash reserve had dropped to $871 million (€758 million) after the company used $1.38 billion (€1.2 billion) in cash to pay down debt. That already pointed to a more active approach to capital management before the viral posts started circulating.
Old Promise, New Policy
The backlash grew because Saylor posted in February 2025: “Never sell your Bitcoin”. For a long time, investors treated that line as a firm rule. But the company has now clearly moved away from that stance. Chief Executive Phong Le said on May 26 that selling Bitcoin is part of the playbook, and he said investors also heard that message on the quarterly call.
That makes the timing especially important. Strategy’s first sale since 2022 came just days later and was used to fund a dividend. Saylor is now drawing a line between his personal view and company policy: the program does not require sales, and he says the company still expects to be a net buyer of Bitcoin over time.
The figures also suggest this is a limited sales program, not a wholesale exit. From April through June, Strategy bought 85,296 Bitcoin and sold 1,395 BTC. Its holdings increased 11 percent over that period to 846,000 BTC. Through July 26, sales this year totaled $218.4 million (€190 million), all of it used for dividends.
Why This Still Matters
For European crypto readers, the bigger point is that Strategy remains one of the largest institutional holders of Bitcoin. When a company of that size changes its capital policy, the market pays attention, especially after years of the firm serving as a symbol of the buy-and-hold Bitcoin strategy. The recent sale of 32 BTC in June, worth about $2.5 million (€2.2 million), is a clear break from that earlier message.
The market reaction around Strategy also shows how closely traders are watching these signals. According to the provided context, the company’s shares fell more than 30 percent from their 2026 peak after its first Bitcoin sale in four years, while the broader crypto market lost about $160 billion (€139 billion) in value over the following week. That underscores how sensitive both Strategy’s stock and Bitcoin remain to news about treasury management and sale policy.
