Strategy, which vowed never to sell bitcoin, approves $1.25 billion in bitcoin sales

Strategy (MSTR), the world's largest corporate bitcoin holder, has officially abandoned its long-held "buy only" principle and formalized bitcoin sales for the first time in the company's history.

On Monday, Strategy unveiled what it called a "Digital Credit Capital Framework," announcing that its board had approved the sale of up to $1.25 billion (approximately 1.93 trillion won) worth of bitcoin to fund preferred share dividends and interest payments. The company also approved separate buyback programs for its common and preferred shares — up to $1 billion (approximately 1.5 trillion won) each, for a combined $2 billion (approximately 3 trillion won).

This marks the first time Strategy has formally authorized a bitcoin sale. When the company disclosed earlier this month that it had sold 32 bitcoin — its first such sale since 2022 — markets largely interpreted the move as symbolic.

That disclosure had already rattled investors, as it was the first crack in Executive Chairman Michael Saylor's long-standing pledge never to sell bitcoin, though the scale was negligible relative to the company's total holdings. Monday's announcement goes further, institutionalizing bitcoin sales as an explicit corporate strategy.

The shift comes as key metrics have deteriorated sharply. Strategy's mNAV — the multiple of its market capitalization relative to the value of its bitcoin holdings — fell below 1 for the first time on June 27, meaning the market had begun valuing the entire company at less than its bitcoin alone.

The company's market capitalization stands at roughly $50.4 billion (approximately 78 trillion won), while its holdings of 847,363 bitcoin — valued at around $60,000 (approximately 90 million won) each — are worth approximately $51.1 billion (approximately 79.2 trillion won), exceeding the company's market value. The share price has also fallen nearly 85 percent from its all-time high in November 2024, recently sliding as low as $82.

Saylor had long pursued what he called a "Bitcoin Flywheel" strategy: issuing shares and preferred stock to raise capital, then reinvesting the proceeds into bitcoin, which in turn was meant to push the share price higher and enable further fundraising — a self-reinforcing cycle. The sharp drop in the share price has effectively broken that mechanism.

Saylor said on X, formerly Twitter, that the company had secured "approximately 25.9 months of dividend coverage" by combining $2.55 billion in dollar reserves with $1.25 billion in bitcoin liquidation capacity, for a total of $3.8 billion. Strategy's share price surged 12.6 percent to close at $92.68 following the announcement — its biggest single-day gain in roughly four months.

dbsdn1110@heraldcorp.com