MicroStrategy will sell Bitcoin only if accretive or for taxes
Strategy will sell bitcoin only if sales raise bitcoin per share under set mNAV or book‑value tests, or to realize deferred gains or tax losses, CEO Phong Le said.
Strategy said it will sell Bitcoin only when sales meet specific financial tests or to manage taxes. The company’s CEO, Phong Le, set conditions that limit any divestment of the firm’s digital‑asset holdings.
The comments followed an earlier remark from Executive Chairman Michael Saylor suggesting Bitcoin could be sold to cover dividends, a remark that pushed Strategy’s stock down about 4%.
Le said the company’s Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, known as Stretch (STRC), which carries an 11.5% dividend, changed the firm’s options for funding payouts. “We have raised $8.5 billion in 10 months, and with that, we look at optionality, we look at our strategy, and we say now let’s look at Bitcoin and see if it can provide us value from time to time to sell it,” he said in an interview. That financing makes selling bitcoin one of several choices for meeting dividend obligations.
Under the policy Le described, bitcoin sales would be permitted only if they are accretive to bitcoin per share. He gave examples: when the company’s book value per share is trading below market price, or when mNAV falls below a threshold he cited as 1.22. A separate reason for selling would be tax management, including realizing deferred gains or capturing tax losses when appropriate.
Le defended Strategy’s balance sheet while noting a reported net loss of $12.54 billion for the first quarter of 2026. He reported leverage around 10–15% and an amplification level near 35%, figures he said the company monitors closely and which he compared to typical investment‑grade metrics.
Strategy holds 818,334 bitcoins acquired at an average cost of about $75,537 per coin, making it the largest publicly traded corporate holder of the asset. Le addressed concerns that selling would distort markets, noting bitcoin’s daily trading volume exceeds $60 billion and estimating the company’s annual dividend obligations at roughly $1.5 billion. He said those obligations would represent only a small fraction of daily bitcoin liquidity and that recent periods without company purchases still saw price increases. “Liquidity isn’t an issue for us,” he added.
The stance departs from the company’s earlier public position against selling any bitcoin. Management first signaled a change in approach during the Q1 2026 earnings call when it disclosed the Stretch preferred share issuance. The new preferred stock’s high dividend rate prompted executives to compare options for funding yield payments, including potential asset sales versus equity issuance. Le emphasized that any sale would need to be accretive to shareholders and aligned with the firm’s valuation metrics.
The company did not provide a timetable for any bitcoin sales and said decisions would depend on market conditions, tax considerations and shareholder value metrics.
