Michael Saylor defends Strategy’s Bitcoin sales plan amid dividend concerns

Michael Saylor has defended Strategy’s ability to sell limited amounts of Bitcoin while continuing to expand its BTC treasury, arguing the company should avoid becoming a net seller rather than follow an absolute “never sell” stance.

According to comments shared by Saylor on May 10 and statements made during his recent appearance at Consensus in Miami, Strategy’s Bitcoin strategy now revolves around using its holdings to support a layered capital structure tied to preferred stock products and equity financing.

Saylor said any future Bitcoin sale would only happen within a larger accumulation cycle. 

“Even if we were to sell one Bitcoin, we’d be buying 10 to 20 more Bitcoin,” he said while responding to concerns that Strategy could eventually reduce its exposure to BTC.

Recent debate around the company’s treasury model intensified after Strategy disclosed that its preferred stock products carry roughly $1.5 billion in annual dividend obligations. 

Crypto.news previously reported that the company posted a $12.54 billion net loss during Q1 2026 while holding 818,334 BTC as of May 3, acquired at an average purchase price of $75,537.

Speaking with CoinDesk senior analyst James Van Straten at Consensus, Saylor described fears surrounding potential Bitcoin sales as economically insignificant. 

He said Strategy could still buy roughly 20 BTC for every one Bitcoin sold if dividends were entirely funded through BTC sales. Saylor also argued the scale of any such sale would remain small compared with Bitcoin’s daily market liquidity, which he estimated at between $20 billion and $50 billion.

Strategy expands Bitcoin financing model

During his Bitcoin 2026 keynote and subsequent posts on X, Saylor described Strategy’s structure as a three-part capital system built around Bitcoin reserves.

In Saylor’s framework, Bitcoin functions as “digital capital,” STRC operates as “digital credit,” and MSTR represents the leveraged equity layer tied to the company’s BTC treasury. 

He said Strategy is “converting digital capital Bitcoin into digital credit (STRC) and digital equity (MSTR).”

STRC, also called “Stretch,” is Strategy’s perpetual preferred stock product designed to maintain a price close to its $100 par value. 

According to Saylor’s Bitcoin 2026 presentation and Strategy’s digital credit dashboard, the company adjusts STRC’s monthly dividend rate while using an at-the-market issuance program to sell new shares when the product trades at or above par.

Cash raised through those sales is then used to purchase more Bitcoin for the company’s reserve balance.

During the same presentation, Saylor said STRC had grown to roughly $8.5 billion in assets under management within about nine months. He also described the product as targeting the private credit market, which he estimated at $3.5 trillion.

Meanwhile, KuCoin’s summary of the Bitcoin 2026 conference noted that STRC’s design channels Bitcoin-related returns into monthly income products. 

The report added that the instrument was structured around an 11% yield assumption tied to Bitcoin’s 38% annualized return and a 5:1 collateral ratio intended to absorb steep BTC price declines.

On the equity side, MSTR continues to function as Strategy’s public-market Bitcoin exposure vehicle. 

A recent BitcoinTreasuries profile noted that the company now holds more than 800,000 BTC, while Yahoo Finance reported that roughly 85% of a recent $2.5 billion Bitcoin purchase by Strategy was financed through STRC issuance.

Elsewhere in the discussion, Saylor rejected criticism from gold advocate Peter Schiff, who argued that Strategy’s financing structure could face pressure during periods of Bitcoin weakness or rising dividend obligations. 

Saylor responded that critics who do not accept Bitcoin as “digital capital” are unlikely to support financial products built around it.