Bitcoin treasury firm strategy shifts from 'never sell' policy

Michael Saylor’s Strategy said on Tuesday it may sell bitcoin if doing so improves shareholder value, marking a notable departure from the company’s long-standing position of holding the cryptocurrency indefinitely, after reporting a wider first-quarter net loss tied to bitcoin’s price decline.

The company posted a net loss of about $12.54 billion for the quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of $53.1 million a year earlier, as a sharp drop in bitcoin prices early in the year weighed heavily on the value of its vast digital asset holdings. Shares of Strategy fell about 3% in after-hours trading following the results.

President and Chief Executive Phong Le told analysts on the company’s earnings call that selling bitcoin to raise U.S. dollars, repay debt or otherwise enhance the company’s bitcoin-per-share metric was now an option management was prepared to consider.

“Our capacity to sell bitcoin to acquire US dollars or to sell bitcoin for debt if it enhances the bitcoin per share is an option we might explore moving forward,” Le said.

He later added that the company would not remain bound by a rigid “never sell bitcoin” philosophy if doing so was not in the best interest of the business.

Strategy, the world’s largest corporate holder of bitcoin, had long championed an aggressive buy-and-hold approach under Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, who transformed the software company into a leveraged bitcoin treasury vehicle beginning in 2020.

By the end of the first quarter, the company held 818,334 bitcoins valued at roughly $61.8 billion, acquired at an average purchase price of around $75,500 per token.

The stash represents close to 4% of bitcoin’s total eventual supply, underscoring the scale of Strategy’s exposure to movements in the cryptocurrency market.

To fund those purchases, Strategy has relied heavily on issuing new equity and debt, while also introducing preferred stock offerings.

In December, it established a US dollar reserve that now totals approximately $2.25 billion to ensure it can meet dividend commitments on preferred shares and interest payments on outstanding debt.

Le said the company’s broader goal remained to be a net accumulator of bitcoin over time, but stressed that management would now focus more directly on increasing bitcoin per share — a company-defined measure of how much bitcoin backs each outstanding share after accounting for dilution from fresh capital raises.