Michael Saylor Denies Bitcoin Sell Rumors, Says Strategy’s BTC Buys ‘Accelerating’

Strategy Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor refused rumors that Strategy is selling its Bitcoin on CNBC.

The Bitcoin buying company will continue to add to its $62.3 billion inventory and remains undeterred by the asset’s recent plunge below the $100,000 mark, he added.

“We buy Bitcoin, [and] We will announce our next purchases on Monday morning,” he said. “I think people will be pleasantly surprised. In fact, we have accelerated our purchases.”

Meanwhile, onlookers speculated that Strategy might sell its Bitcoin, citing on-chain moves identified by crypto intelligence platform Arkham Analytics. The moves could indicate that Strategy is now using Coinbase as a custodian, Arkham added.

On the prediction market Myriad, traders signed in an 8% chance that Strategy would sell Bitcoin in 2025 on Friday, but those odds had risen to 14% earlier in the day. (Disclaimer: Myriad Markets is a product of Declutterparent company Dastan.)

Strategy has always maintained that it would never voluntarily sell Bitcoin, TD Cowen analyst Lance Vitanza told me Declutter. There are circumstances under which Strategy has acknowledged it would in fact be forced to do so, but they are “highly unlikely”, he added.

Theoretically, Strategy would have to sell Bitcoin to meet its debt maturities, but the company has no convertible notes due 2028, Vitanza noted.

The only sale Saylor was referring to CNBC was on behalf of ‘OG holders’, who took profits of $100,000 after sitting on their holdings for an extended period of time.

Last week, Strategy spotted that the debut of euro-denominated preferred shares in Luxembourg would generate $715 million in proceeds.

Strategy’s share price has fallen 32% in the past month, while Bitcoin has lost most of this year’s gains, with MSTR shares trading around $204, according to Yahoo Finance. Bitcoin recently changed hands for $96,365, according to the crypto data provider Coin geckoafter falling to a six-month low below $95,000 earlier Friday.

Saylor said he feels “pretty comfortable” with Bitcoin at its current price level, describing the asset’s recent dip as something that provided a foundation to recover from. However, it is currently difficult to predict where the asset’s price could be at year-end, he added.

In response to a question from CNBCAccording to Joe Kernen, Saylor says the company is “always buying,” but there have been several periods when Strategy has not announced a purchasereconciled at the end of each fiscal quarter.

In addition to common stock, Strategy has issued a mix of products to finance its Bitcoin purchases, including convertible bonds and dividend-paying preferred stock.

The company’s critics included short sellers such as James Chanos have questioned the sustainability of Strategy’s business, but Saylor expressed confidence on Friday.

Saylor said Strategy’s balance sheet is stable and that Bitcoin’s price could fall by 80% and the company would still have collateral relative to its debt. The company had raised $8.2 billion through convertible notes on Friday, it said website.

Since dividend payments on Strategy’s preferred shares are declared by the board, Saylor added that there is “no credit default” on the products currently worth $7.6 billion.

Echoing Saylor’s view on preferred stock, TD Cowen’s Vitanza said that “the company is not legally required to make dividend payments,” but acknowledged that skipping or delaying payments would “clearly impact their ability to issue more preferred stock.”

In addition, Strategy has a dividend burden of about $735 million per year, and Vitanza said he would be “very surprised if this became a legitimate issue.”

Saylor’s comments come as the company’s financing mechanism does lost its effectiveness. Historically, the company has issued common stock to grow its Bitcoin holdings, while benefiting from a premium its shares have on the value of its Bitcoin stock.

As of Friday, Strategy had a market cap of $59 billion while owning $62.3 billion worth of Bitcoin, giving it a so-called mNAV, or multiple-to-net asset value, of almost 0.95x. Strategy’s website puts the informal benchmark around 1.2x, using a calculation that takes into account Strategy’s debt.

Editor’s note: This story was updated with analyst commentary after publication.