For years, Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin strategy had one unbreakable rule: never sell. That rule just broke, and Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz says the fallout is dragging the entire market down with it.
Novogratz attributed Bitcoin’s recent price decline to a crisis of confidence sparked by Strategy’s (formerly MicroStrategy) decision to sell 32 BTC for approximately $2.5 million between May 26 and May 31. It was the company’s first Bitcoin sale since December 2022. The amount itself is almost comically small relative to Strategy’s total holdings, roughly 844,000 BTC. But the symbolism hit like a freight train.
Why 32 BTC rattled the entire market
The sale was completed at an average price of roughly $77,135 per coin. Strategy’s overall average acquisition cost sits around $75,699, meaning the company barely eked out a profit on these particular coins. For a firm sitting on approximately 844,000 BTC, the transaction was economically irrelevant. Psychologically, though, it was devastating.
Novogratz pointed to roughly $14 billion in unrealized losses as a factor weighing on sentiment. When a company that has essentially bet its entire corporate identity on Bitcoin starts showing that kind of paper loss, even a tiny sale gets interpreted as a canary in the coal mine.
The broader selloff picture
ETF outflows have been weighing on prices. A strong US dollar and hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve created exactly the kind of environment where risk assets struggle.
Bitcoin recorded its largest weekly loss since late 2022 during this period, with prices trading in the $60,000 to $72,000 range around the time of Strategy’s sale. As of late June, Bitcoin was testing critical support around the $59,000 to $60,000 level.
What this means for investors
Novogratz’s framing raises an uncomfortable question that every Bitcoin investor needs to sit with: how much of Bitcoin’s price in the past two years was built on the assumption that Strategy would never sell?
Strategy holds approximately 844,000 BTC. Any indication that the company might liquidate a meaningful portion of that stack could create a self-reinforcing selling cycle. Other holders front-run the anticipated supply, prices drop, which creates more pressure on Strategy’s balance sheet, which raises the probability of further sales.
The $59,000 to $60,000 support zone becomes critical in this context. A decisive break below that range could trigger another wave of liquidations across leveraged positions. Traders should watch whether institutional flows stabilize or continue deteriorating.
On the other side of the ledger, Strategy’s average cost basis of around $75,699 means the company is barely underwater on its overall position. A 32 BTC sale could have been driven by mundane corporate treasury management rather than a fundamental shift in conviction. But the burden of proof sits squarely on Strategy to demonstrate that this sale was an anomaly rather than a precedent.