Michael Saylor Clarifies Bitcoin Selling Strategy, Emphasizes Net Buying

Organized & Compiled by Deep潮 TechFlow

Guest: Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman of Strategy

Hosts: Bonnie, David

Michael Saylor, the Bitcoin Guru, Goes Head-to-Head! Why Is Strategy Preparing to Sell Bitcoin?

Podcast source: Bonnie Blockchain

Broadcast date: May 9, 2026

In this episode, Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman of Strategy, provides the first systematic explanation of his market-shaking statement—that the company may sell Bitcoin to pay dividends on STRC preferred shares—following the latest earnings call. This directly contradicts his long-standing mantra, “Never sell your Bitcoin.” His core rationale: STRC’s breakeven point is 2.3% of its Bitcoin holdings; as long as Bitcoin’s annual appreciation exceeds 2.3%, the company can still remain a net buyer of BTC each month and each quarter, even with occasional sales.

What readers should pay closer attention to are three key points raised by Saylor: First, Strategy issued 60% of all preferred stock in the U.S. this year, single-handedly reviving the entire American preferred stock market; Second, STRC’s Sharpe ratio ranges from 2.5 to 3, surpassing NVIDIA (approximately 1.7) and top hedge funds (up to 2.2), making it “the financial instrument with the highest risk-adjusted return in public markets”; Third, Bitcoin’s “killer app” is now clear—not payments, but serving as collateral for credit, with digital credit being the stepping stone to a $100 trillion digital currency market.

Shift from "Sell BTC to Pay Dividends"

• We want the market to understand that Bitcoin’s capital gains are funding the STRC credit dividend. Sell $1 million in STRC, then immediately buy $1 million in Bitcoin.
• I’m known for saying “Never sell your Bitcoin,” so when we said we might sell, the entire internet exploded. But to be more precise, it should be “Never be a net seller of Bitcoin”—it’s just not as catchy.
• Even during these periods, if we sell one Bitcoin, we will buy back 10 to 20. Once everyone understands this, it shouldn’t even be an issue.
• Any company that gives up its options will later regret it, no matter what.

STRC's economic model

• Our breakeven rate is 2.3%. This means that as long as the issued STRC does not exceed 2.3% of our Bitcoin holdings, we will always be a net buyer of Bitcoin—even when selling BTC to pay dividends.
• STRC is the core engine of Bitcoin's value accumulation. In April, we sold $3.2 billion worth of STRC and used the proceeds to buy $3.2 billion worth of Bitcoin. The monthly dividend was $80 to $90 million, effectively equivalent to buying 30 Bitcoin and selling 1.
• Our collateralization ratio for Bitcoin is 5:1. For every $5 of Bitcoin, we issue $1 of credit, and that $1 has a defined yield.

Response to Allegations of a Ponzi Scheme

• Peter Schiff believes Bitcoin itself is a Ponzi scheme and has no fondness for anything in this space.
• If you do not recognize the legitimacy of Bitcoin, you will never recognize the legitimacy of any derivatives built on top of it.
• To draw an analogy, a real estate development company issues bonds to raise funds, buys land at $10,000 per acre, develops it, and then sells it for $100,000 per acre, realizing the capital appreciation—no one would question whether this company is a Ponzi scheme. What we’re doing with Bitcoin is exactly the same thing.

Bitcoin market liquidity and buy impact

• We bought $100 million worth of Bitcoin in one hour, and the price didn’t move; we bought $200 million, and the price still didn’t move; but after buying $200 to $300 million and then stopping, the price rose.
• Bitcoin is the world’s deepest and most liquid capital market. Want to trade $1 billion with 20x leverage this weekend? Bitcoin can do it. Need $1 billion in credit within an hour? Bitcoin can provide it.
• I have accumulated approximately $62 billion in Bitcoin, more than anyone I know. To suggest that a single company could systematically influence this market is an overestimation of our capabilities—it is a global market with its own dynamics, and even a single announcement from the Chinese government can move prices.

Digital credit is Bitcoin's "killer app"

• Over the past 12 months, one thing has become clear: Bitcoin has at least one killer app—digital credit. The killer app for an asset class worth $1.5 trillion with daily trading volumes in the billions is as collateral for credit.
• STRC is the most liquid credit instrument in the market and the largest preferred stock, with a Sharpe ratio of 2.5 to 3. The highest Sharpe ratio among other credit instruments is only 0.5; NVIDIA is 1.7, the S&P is 0.9, Bitcoin itself is 0.85, and top hedge funds reach at most 2.2. The risk-adjusted return of digital credit exceeds all financial strategies available on public markets.
• This year, we issued 60% of all preferred stocks in the United States, making us the largest credit issuer in the country. Last year and this year, we revitalized the entire preferred stock market.
• Digital credit is the stepping stone to digital currencies and digital yields. Yield-bearing stablecoins are exploding—Apex’s product grew from $0 to $300 million in 8 weeks, and Saturn’s product reached $110 million in 6 weeks. The underlying market is a trillion dollars and is spreading virally.

Macroeconomics and AI

• Even tight monetary policy, geopolitical conflicts, and trade wars are merely headwinds that slow us down—they become tailwinds when they reverse. But Bitcoin will keep climbing steadily, because miners contribute only $10 to $12 billion in native supply annually, or 450 bitcoins per day. Every time we raise $10 billion in capital, we buy up an entire year’s supply.
• Without AI, we couldn’t have created STRC—I used AI to build Strike, Strife, Stride, and Stretch. If you’re a Bitcoin treasury company, the smartest move is to use digital intelligence to extract digital credit from digital capital.

Host Bonnie: What happened 19 hours ago that shook the internet?

Michael Saylor: You're referring to our earnings call, where we announced that we are willing to sell Bitcoin if necessary to fund the preferred dividends of STRC.

Host Bonnie: I believe this is a well-considered shift. What’s the reasoning behind it?

Michael Saylor: The most important point is that we want the market to understand that Bitcoin’s capital gains are funding the STRC credit dividend. We sell $1 million of STRC and immediately reinvest that same $1 million into Bitcoin. We expect Bitcoin to appreciate by approximately 30% annually, and historically it has been closer to 40%. We allocate the first 11% of those capital gains as a credit dividend.

But there has always been some confusion about where the dividends come from. For most of the time this tool has been running, we’ve paid dividends by selling shares of common stock in MSTR. MSTR is a derivative of Bitcoin and typically trades at a premium, so what we’re actually selling is a Bitcoin derivative. However, some worry that in the future we won’t be able to sell the stock; short sellers claim we must sell shares, while others argue the company will never sell Bitcoin. This narrative has evolved into: “Since they don’t sell Bitcoin, Bitcoin isn’t really an asset—so the $65 billion on the balance sheet should be written down to zero.”

You can't have something worth $65 billion valued at zero. We don’t want rating agencies to think the company has zero assets—we want them to see $65 billion. There are still people online calling this a Ponzi scheme because we pay preferred dividends with stock issuance.

What we aim to do is clearly explain the business model: issuing credit to make a capital investment in a digital asset called Bitcoin; this investment appreciates faster than dividends, and the capital appreciation is realized to pay dividends. We believe the clearest way to express this is to explicitly tell the market that the company does not need to continuously issue common stock—it can instead pay dividends by selling highly appreciated Bitcoin, using capital gains to fund credit dividends.

Think of a real estate development company: it raises funds through bond issuance, buys land at $10,000 per acre, develops it, and then sees its value rise to $100,000 per acre—after which it realizes that capital appreciation by selling the land, leasing it, or refinancing. No one questions the company’s actions. What we’re doing with Bitcoin is exactly the same thing.

I’m known for the phrase “Never sell your Bitcoin,” so when we mentioned possibly selling, the internet exploded. But to be more precise, it should be “Never be a net seller of Bitcoin”—though that’s not as catchy or viral. I can tell you that during these periods, even if we sell one Bitcoin, we’ll buy back 10 to 20. So essentially, we’re buying 10 and selling 1, netting a purchase of 9, and continuously accumulating Bitcoin. Once everyone understands this, it shouldn’t be an issue—but right now, the discussion boards are definitely buzzing.

Host Bonnie: Could you explain in detail how to achieve "sell one, buy ten"?

Michael Saylor: The largest value accumulation engine for Bitcoin is Stretch. In April, we issued $3.2 billion in STRC and used it to purchase $3.2 billion worth of Bitcoin. The monthly dividend was approximately $80 to $90 million, raising $3 billion while paying out $80–90 million in dividends—essentially buying 30 Bitcoin and selling 1.

Our breakeven rate is 2.3%. This means that as long as the total credit issued in STRC does not exceed 2.3% of our Bitcoin holdings, we will always be a net buyer of Bitcoin—even when selling BTC to pay dividends. Alternatively, as long as Bitcoin’s annual appreciation exceeds 2.3%, we can sustainably pay dividends and continue growing our value without ever selling common shares.

In the first four months of this year, we have already sold approximately $5 billion worth of STRC; at this pace, the annual issuance rate will reach 15% to 20%. The breakeven line is 2.3%, so we buy 20 and sell 2, resulting in a net purchase of 18. As long as the company continues to grow, we will always buy more BTC than we sell. I expect that, going forward, month after month and quarter after quarter, we will remain a net buyer of Bitcoin.

Host Bonnie: Before handing over to David, one final question. Many investors treat "never sell your Bitcoin" as a guiding principle—do you think they should continue doing so?

Michael Saylor: Yes, you should be a net accumulator of Bitcoin. When I say “never sell,” I mean that if you must spend it for something, replenish it during the same period you spend it. Some in the crypto space advocate using Bitcoin to pay for goods and services—if you spend it, replenish it. You cannot be a net seller, because Bitcoin is capital. At the end of each year, you should have more Bitcoin than you did at the beginning.

For comparison, if Google invested $1 billion in data centers and earned $10 billion, netting $9 billion, would that shake the U.S. dollar market? No—Google sells dollars to buy data centers, the dollar remains stable, Google’s business model remains intact, and everyone sees this as a rational decision: spending money to make more money. Similarly, if you spend 1 Bitcoin to earn 10 Bitcoins, it doesn’t harm Bitcoin or the company—it actually strengthens the company, because we can tap into the crypto liquidity market. Bitcoin spot trading volume reaches $20 billion daily, with derivatives at $50 billion—a powerful energy source. When equity capital markets lack liquidity, we must be able to shift to this alternative.

Any company that gives up its options—no matter what—will later regret it. Another example: if we said we would never repurchase our own shares and would only ever issue them, short sellers would drive the stock price down to $1, far below net asset value (NAV), and then we could buy it back. So during yesterday’s call, we stated that we are prepared to exchange STRC for MSTR, BTC for MSTR, or use BTC or MSTR to fulfill obligations—all in the best interest of the company. But in the long term, we remain committed to being a net accumulator of Bitcoin; that won’t change. How we trade assets on a day-to-day basis—whether selling credit, equity, or capital assets—depends on market conditions and mispricings.

Yesterday, we mentioned that we are prepared to repurchase our own bonds. Our corporate bonds are trading at a discount and are undervalued, so buying them is reasonable, while selling them is not. We do not sell undervalued assets; instead, we buy them and arbitrage away this inefficiency. If the market knows we will do this, it will price these instruments more fairly, which benefits all investors and fulfills our fiduciary duty to shareholders.

Host David: I read a tweet you shared this morning: One of your biggest critics, Peter Schiff (a gold advocate and long-term Bitcoin bear), wrote: “Yesterday, Saylor admitted that MSTR would sell Bitcoin to pay STRC dividends if necessary. I think this promise does help prolong what’s essentially a Ponzi scheme. But I suspect that when the time comes, he’ll suspend dividends and let STRC collapse rather than let Bitcoin collapse.” How do you respond?

Michael Saylor: Peter believes Bitcoin itself is a Ponzi scheme; he dislikes everything about this space. Bitcoin is digital capital, and we built a digital treasury company by issuing equity and credit instruments to acquire this capital. Bitcoin will endure because it represents the tokenization of global economic wealth with full property rights. On top of it, we created a credit instrument called STRC, stripping away volatility and reducing risk to extract a yield from digital capital. If you do not recognize Bitcoin’s legitimacy, you will never accept the legitimacy of any of its derivatives. But for those who believe Bitcoin is a legitimate asset, what we do is straightforward: 5:1 over-collateralization—issuing $1 of credit for every $5 of Bitcoin, with a clear yield on that $1 of credit.

Many people view Bitcoin as a legitimate asset but are deterred by its volatility. They won’t use money intended for their child’s tuition or bills due in 12 weeks to buy Bitcoin. For such individuals, digital credit makes sense: it protects principal, remains stable, and delivers returns three to four times higher than money market funds. It’s precisely Bitcoin’s unique characteristics compared to other capital assets that enable us to offer higher dividends.

Host David: I’d like to run a theory by you before passing it back to Bonnie. Some traders have noticed that after each STRC dividend payout, the ex-dividend price drops below par and stays there for one or two days—or longer; once it returns to par, Strategy begins buying Bitcoin. As a result, they’ve started front-running this pattern, buying Bitcoin before STRC reaches par, betting that you and Strategy will buy BTC at par. What do you think?

Michael Saylor: As the dividend record date approaches, there is significant buying demand for STRC because shareholders are entitled to receive approximately $0.90 in dividends after the record date. Consequently, STRC experiences billions of dollars in trading volume before the record date, drops by 60 to 70 cents the day after, and then gradually recovers to its par value over the following one to two weeks. This is how arbitrageurs operate: they tie up $1 million in capital for one day, doing this only 12 times a year, locking in an annualized return of about 42%. Their math is sound, and it benefits us by generating liquidity and engagement—it will continue to exist.

Regarding the second question, can you front-run the Bitcoin market? The Bitcoin derivatives market trades $50 billion per day. Is it likely that anyone has enough capital to move this market? Unlikely. My view is that Bitcoin is, in a sense, “the square of tech capital.” What drives Bitcoin are trade wars, hot wars, foreign policy, the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s situation, and monetary wars—such as whether SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate) will drop to 200 basis points or if the yield curve has flattened. Clearly, we are in a highly tight monetary environment, and these macro factors are Bitcoin’s primary drivers.

Let me tell you a fact: we bought $1 billion worth of Bitcoin in an hour, and the price didn’t move; we bought $2 billion, and the price still didn’t move; but when we bought $2–3 billion and then stopped, the price rose. So anyone who thinks they have that kind of influence—unless you can dump $30 billion in a single afternoon—I’ve spent an enormous amount of money, more than anyone I know, and we’ve accumulated roughly $62 billion in Bitcoin. I believe this is a global market with its own dynamics, driven by geopolitics; a single announcement from the Chinese government can move Bitcoin’s price. It may sound flattering to say our company is systemically important, but I don’t believe that’s the case.

Host Bonnie: Why didn’t the price move even though you bought so much Bitcoin?

Michael Saylor: The market is extremely deep and highly liquid. Suppose I were to make a massive purchase of $1 billion one day—$1 billion is just 1/50th of $50 billion. When you speak with traders, you’ll find that Bitcoin’s spot market is $20 billion and its derivatives market is $50 billion. What does $1 billion matter in a bucket of $40 billion, $50 billion, or $60 billion? This is the deepest and most liquid capital market in the world—that’s what makes it unique. On the weekend, if you want to place a $1 billion trade with 20x leverage, Bitcoin can handle it. If you need $1 billion in credit within an hour, Bitcoin can provide it.

Macroeconomic factors are the primary drivers, and sometimes the market follows its own logic. Micro factors also play a role: the formation of digital credit, the formation of banking credit, and investor sentiment toward digital assets. But Bitcoin is larger than any of us imagined—and that’s precisely why we have confidence in it: no single player can prop it up or suppress it.

Host Bonnie: If the Strait of Hormuz—which accounts for about one-fifth of global oil shipping—remains closed for the foreseeable future, several things could happen: first, inflationary pressures may persist; second, the Fed may eventually need to cut rates but could be constrained by high inflation. What would happen to liquidity? And if the Fed is stuck, what would happen to Bitcoin?

Michael Saylor: Tight monetary policy, heightened global trade tensions, and elevated geopolitical tensions stemming from foreign policy or conflicts (Ukraine, Iran) are headwinds that exert some downward pressure. But once these reverse, they become tailwinds. Regardless, Bitcoin will continue to grind upward. The reason is that miners contribute only $10 to $12 billion in native supply annually—450 bitcoins per day. Every time we accumulate $10 billion in capital, we absorb an entire year’s supply.

The bank creates $10 billion in credit—that’s the first revolution. We sell $10 billion in STRC digital credit—that’s the second revolution. $10 billion flows into IBIT (BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF)—that’s the third revolution. These capital flows, digital credits, digital capital packaging, and bank credit form the foundation of the market, and all are trending positively. Regardless of macro conditions, you’ll see sustained upward movement. Macro trends only affect the pace: when rising at 30%, it can accelerate to 50%; with headwinds, it may slow slightly.

Host David: Have your arguments about Bitcoin changed?

Michael Saylor: Nothing has changed. But I want to say that it’s now clear Bitcoin is digital capital. One thing that became evident over the past 12 months is that Bitcoin has at least one killer application: digital credit. What is the killer application for an asset class worth $1.5 trillion with hundreds of billions in daily trading volume? The answer is collateral for credit. If digital capital is the best-performing capital asset, then there’s good reason to believe the best-performing credit asset can be built on top of it.

Over the past year, I’ve observed that STRC is the most liquid credit instrument on the market, the largest preferred stock by size, and the one with the highest Sharpe ratio. We’ve constructed an instrument with a volatility of 3, a dividend yield of 11.5%, and a Sharpe ratio of 2.5 to 3. Consider this: the highest Sharpe ratio for any other credit instrument is only 0.5; the highest for equities is NVIDIA at around 1.7; the S&P 500 is at 0.9; Bitcoin itself is at 0.85—all below 1. Even the best hedge funds barely reach a Sharpe ratio of 2.2. Thus, the risk-adjusted return of digital credit outperforms any financial strategy or instrument in public markets. A year ago, I couldn’t have made this claim, but the logic holds: if Bitcoin is the best-performing asset, then Bitcoin-backed convertible bonds are the best-performing convertibles, and credit instruments like STRC are the best-performing preferred stocks.

By the way, do you know what percentage of the U.S. preferred stock market our preferred shares issued this year represent?

Host David: I guess over 70%.

Michael Saylor: We issued 60% of all preferred stock in the U.S., making us the largest credit issuer in the country last year and this year. We reactivated the preferred stock market, and it has exploded entirely. The new idea here is this: digital capital drives digital credit. Next, you’ll see that digital credit serves as the stepping stone to digital currencies and digital currency markets. Yield-bearing stablecoins are surging: Apex launched one, growing from $0 to $300 million in eight weeks; Saturn launched one, growing from $0 to $110 million in six weeks. Innovation is exploding across the digital assets space, the crypto space, and TradFi—all driven by digital credit, which Bitcoin enables. This may be the most exciting development of the year.

Host David: My final question, then I’ll hand it over to Bonnie to wrap up. Some Bitcoin miners have already begun transitioning their mining operations to power AI data centers. Will you join this so-called “AI transition”? If so, how would you participate?

Michael Saylor: I think it’s a good thing that Bitcoin miners are now able to benefit from investments in high-performance, high-power computing. What we do is refine digital credit using digital intelligence. How does AI affect our business? We couldn’t have created STRC without AI. I used AI to develop Strike, Strife, Stride, and Stretch. How do we create digital credit? We take a piece of digital capital, process it with digital intelligence to produce a form of digital credit with specific risk characteristics, volatility, yield, and currency structure, then introduce it to the public market.

If you are a Bitcoin treasury or digital treasury company, the smartest move is to use digital intelligence to extract digital credit from digital capital. This is the stepping stone—the financial fuel for creating digital currencies and digital returns. The market for digital currencies and digital returns is one hundred trillion dollars and is currently spreading virally.

Host Bonnie: Last question. Was Have Space Suit—Will Travel (Robert Heinlein’s 1958 sci-fi novel) what led you to MIT? Before returning to MIT, before reading that book, before Bitcoin—what would you say to your younger self?

Michael Saylor: When I was in first grade, my parents motivated me by offering ten cents for every book I read. At the time, I was obsessed with comic books, which cost 25 cents each, so I calculated that I needed to read two and a half “real books” to afford one comic. That gave me tremendous motivation—I read about 100 books that summer. I would go to the library and check out ten books at a time, read them all, and return them. Later, I discovered science fiction: Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov—I read The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (Heinlein, 1966) and Have Space Suit—Will Travel, and by third or fourth grade, I had finished them all.

I have to say, it was these science fiction books that drove my intellectual development. Boys in elementary school are highly impressionable. In Have Space Suit—Will Travel, an alpha male protagonist repairs his own spacesuit, gets picked up by a spaceship, travels across the universe, rescues humanity from a horde of bug-eyed monsters, and returns to Earth. What was his reward for saving humanity? A full scholarship to MIT. At the time, I thought: if someone who saved humanity thinks MIT is good enough, then MIT is good enough for me too. Damn it, I’ve got to get into MIT.

Host Bonnie: If Musk invited you to Mars, would you go?

Michael Saylor: It depends on what kind of spaceship he provides.