The Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy resumed Bitcoin purchases this week, after its chairman, Michael Saylor, initially hinted that the company might stop buying Bitcoin, before clarifying his position. Selling part of its holdings to pay dividends.
“I became famous for saying, 'Never sell your Bitcoin,' so when we said we might sell Bitcoin, the internet exploded,” Thiel said in an interview released over the weekend on the podcast. “But if I had been more precise: never be a net seller of Bitcoin. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have become so popular.”
Hours after the podcast aired, Strategy resumed purchasing Bitcoin, acquiring 535 BTC at an average price of $80,340 per coin, totaling $430 million.Announced on Monday. This purchase follows the company’s pause last week on increasing its Bitcoin holdings, bringing its total stake to 818,869 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $61.9 billion.
The strategy has invested approximately $430 million to purchase 535 bitcoins at an average price of about $80,340 per bitcoin, achieving a 9.4% bitcoin return since 2026. As of May 10, 2026, we hold 818,869 bitcoins. $BTC was acquired for approximately $6.186 billion at an average price of about $75,540 per bitcoin. $MSTR$STRChttps://t.co/qScHXi2BBJ
— Michael Saylor (@saylor)May 11, 2026
Saylor's comments were made during Strategy's earnings call last week, when the company disclosed that it has the flexibility to suspend sales of its MSTR common shares and instead pay STRC dividend obligations by selling Bitcoin.
STRC is a perpetual preferred stock issued by Strategy Company, paying quarterly cash dividends, and has become one of the most liquid preferred stocks in the U.S. market. According to the company's data, STRC has an effective annual yield of approximately 11.5%. Official statistics
Thaler's argument
The strategy sold $3.2 billion worth of STRC stock just in April, reinvesting the proceeds into Bitcoin acquisitions. The bond’s quarterly dividend is approximately $80 million to $90 million, meaning that in any month where the company must raise cash to pay dividends, the buy-to-sell ratio is roughly 30:1.
Syle said the company’s breakeven Bitcoin issuance rate—meaning the rate at which it can sell Bitcoin to pay dividends while still maintaining a net Bitcoin purchase—is 2.3% of its holdings annually. He noted that, given current issuance rates of 15% to 20%, mathematically, continuing to accumulate Bitcoin is more favorable. JPMorgan analysts estimate that, at the current pace, Strategy could purchase up to $30 billion in Bitcoin this year.
Chief Strategy Officer Phong Le enhanced stated on Friday that Le framed the issue as “math over ideology,” arguing: “We will sell Bitcoin when it is more beneficial to our Bitcoin-per-share price than selling stocks that pay dividends.”
Gold advocate Peter Schiff responded on Twitter that he "acknowledges MSTR will sell Bitcoin when necessary," calling this arrangement necessary to sustain what he calls his Ponzi scheme.
“Peter thinks Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme,” Thiel said, adding that Schiff “isn’t really interested in anything in this space.”
Bitcoin outlook
Speaking with Decrypted experts downplayed the possibility that any potential strategic sale could trigger market disruption.
Andrew Webberly, founder and CEO of UK-based Bitcoin asset management firm Smarter Web Company, believes that responsible asset management can actually enhance institutional confidence. He said, “This shows that Bitcoin asset management firms are evolving into enduring financial structures, rather than ideological tools.” Decrypt
Georgii Verbitskii, founder and derivatives trader at TYMIO, said that comments alone are unlikely to influence Bitcoin’s price movement; macro liquidity, ETF fund flows, and risk sentiment remain the primary drivers. Decrypt
“If MicroStrategy sells some Bitcoin, the initial reaction, psychologically, might be negative,” he said. “But unless the sale is extremely large, I don’t think it will structurally change the market.”
Bitcoin is currently trading at approximately $81,200, slightly below last week’s high of $82,496.CoinGecko data Despite a short-term pullback, the number of users on prediction markets continues to grow.Countless by allDecrypt parent company Dastan remains optimistic, assigning an 88% probability that the next major move for the leading cryptocurrency will be an upward surge to $84,000.