Michael Saylor's Strategy announced a "BTC Monetization Program" that authorizes the sale of up to $1.25 billion worth of Bitcoin, reversing years of public commitments to never liquidate the asset.
The company holds 847,363 BTC purchased at an average cost of $75,651 per coin. Current holdings are worth roughly $50 billion, down about $14 billion from their acquisition cost. The authorized sale amount translates to roughly 21,000 BTC at recent prices, dwarfing Strategy's largest prior sale of 704 BTC in 2022.
Saylor has built his public image partly on absolutist Bitcoin rhetoric, including claims that people should "sell a kidney" to hold. Strategy's framework officially describes the company as "committed to BTC as its primary treasury reserve asset," even as it now plans aggressive liquidations whenever cash runs short for stock buybacks and preferred dividends.
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The math behind the move
Strategy disclosed a USD cash reserve of about $2.55 billion, enough to cover roughly 17 months of its $1.7 billion annual obligation in preferred dividends and interest payments. If the company sells all authorized BTC, that runway extends to about 26 months. The announcement also raised the dividend rate on STRC (the company's largest preferred stock) from 11.5% to 12%, a credit card-like payout intended to prop up share price after STRC hit $71.25 last week, 18 percent below Strategy's $100 target.
Chief Financial Officer Andrew Kang framed the shift as "Bitcoin is capital," a semantic repackaging of a fundamental strategic reversal. CEO Phong Le called it "evolving from one-way capital issuance to active capital management."
Prior commitments don't hold
Strategy has quietly abandoned other pledges. It once promised not to issue common stock below a 2.5x multiple of Net Asset Value, except to fund liabilities. The company dropped that within days. Saylor now promises to "remain disciplined" in common equity issuance when shares trade near 1x mNAV. Current MSTR mNAV stands at 1.04x, dangerously close to that threshold.
Market data shows MSTR and STRC both opened roughly 5 percent higher on the announcement today. Bitcoin itself moved little, within 1 percent of Friday's close. The modest equity bounce suggests investors were already pricing in a pivot away from absolute hodling, or that confidence in Strategy's execution remains constrained by the gap between promises and practice.