Strategy, the world's largest crypto treasury firm, may sell bitcoin to fund dividends for its high-yield perpetual preferred stock, STRC.
In its first-quarter 2026 earnings call, Strategy executives highlighted the rapid success of STRC and the company's greater flexibility in managing its balance sheet — including the ability to pay dividends by selling bitcoin (BTC) while continuing to grow its overall bitcoin holdings.
Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor noted that the firm's current position requires bitcoin to appreciate at 2.3% annually for its existing holdings to cover STRC dividend obligations indefinitely, without selling any common stock.
"The BTC breakeven ARR is also the inflection point where stretch issuance results in more bitcoin being stacked by our company than the bitcoin we use to pay dividends, if we choose to pay dividends with bitcoin," Saylor said.
Saylor explained that the firm can opt to stop selling the MSTR common stock immediately and fund dividends through bitcoin sales. The approach would eventually help Strategy buy more bitcoin than it sells to cover dividends for its STRC, which has raised $8.5 billion since launch.
Later in the call, Saylor also commented: "We'll probably sell some bitcoin to fund the dividend, just to inoculate the market, just to send the message that we did it."
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Meanwhile, the Strategy chairman had repeatedly maintained that his company would "never sell" its bitcoin, making that message a core part of Strategy's brand as the ultimate corporate bitcoin holder.
The latest earnings call marked a departure from this long-held "never sell" conviction, signaling a willingness to selectively sell bitcoin to support its STRC strategy.
"We will sell bitcoin when it's advantageous to the company. We're not going to sit back and just say we'll never sell the bitcoin," Strategy CEO Phong Le said during the call. "We want to be net aggregators of bitcoin, increasing our total bitcoin, but more importantly, increasing our bitcoin per share."
The company currently holds 818,334 bitcoin — approximately 3.9% of total bitcoin supply — valued at roughly $66.5 billion as of today. In the first quarter, Strategy acquired 89,599 bitcoin and purchased another 56,235 bitcoin in the early part of the second quarter.
In the first quarter, Strategy reported an operating loss of $14.5 billion, driven primarily by mark-to-market adjustments tied to bitcoin's price movement during the quarter. The company posted a net loss of $12.5 billion. Bitcoin-per-share increased approximately 18% year-over-year to 213,371 sats per share.
Strategy executives said the company aims to double bitcoin-per-share within seven years through its "digital credit" strategy, led by STRC.
The company's Nasdaq-listed MSTR common stock rose 1.7% on Tuesday to close at $186.9. It has gained 46% over the past month but remains down 26.7% over the past six months.