Saylor’s “Never Sell” Sermon Implodes as Strategy Dumps $105M in Bitcoin to Pay 12% Dividends

Diamond hands on the podcast. Paper hands in the 8-K.

All you diamond-handed Strategy shareholders may want to sit down and crack open a cold bottle of cope…

The company formerly known as MicroStrategy just sold 1,638 Bitcoin for $104.7 million, proving that “never sell” has officially been amended to “never sell unless the preferred shareholders need their checks.”

Strategy unloaded the coins between July 27 and August 2 at an average price of $63,957 apiece. That’s well below the company’s average purchase price of $75,419, meaning the world’s most famous corporate Bitcoin hoarder is now selling it at a loss to pay the bills stacked on top.

And before you ask… no, the proceeds weren’t used to buy more Bitcoin.

According to the company’s SEC filing, $52.4 million went toward preferred-stock dividends, while another $52.3 million was used to repurchase shares of STRC, Strategy’s preferred stock currently carrying a 12% annual dividend rate.

Nothing screams “infinite Bitcoin flywheel” quite like liquidating Bitcoin below cost to service the securities you previously issued to buy Bitcoin.

Saylor, meanwhile, would like everyone to know that technically he didn’t sell anything.

“When I say ‘Never Sell Your Bitcoin,’ I speak as one saver to another,” Saylor wrote on X. “I have never sold mine. Not one satoshi.”

He then reminded everyone that Strategy is a public company, “not my wallet.”

Technically true. Also extremely convenient now that Strategy just did the one thing he’s spent years telling everyone else not to do. 

Of course, 1,638 Bitcoin barely puts a dent in Strategy’s stash. The company still owns 842,138 coins worth $53 billion, so nobody needs to organize a GoFundMe for Saylor just yet. 

Strategy made its first Bitcoin sale since 2022 on June 1. Then July delivered the largest sale in company history at  $216 million. Now another batch of coins has gone out the door specifically to fund dividends and prop up STRC.

That “never sell” policy is developing quite a few exceptions.

The MSTR flywheel worked because Wall Street paid a premium for Saylor’s Bitcoin wrapper.

Strategy could sell stock at that inflated valuation, turn the proceeds into more Bitcoin, and then point to the growing Bitcoin stash as another reason to buy the stock. Investors kept paying up, and Saylor kept buying.

Round and round it went.

Now the premium has collapsed, and the same trick produces a lot less juice. Strategy still raised $290.6 million by issuing shares last week, but selling equity near the value of the Bitcoin underneath it is hardly the infinite-money cheat code it once was.

Meanwhile, STRC’s 12% dividend keeps tapping its watch.

Bitcoin can crash, rip, or spend six months doing absolutely nothing. That cash payment still comes due.

Right now, some of it is coming directly out of the Bitcoin vault.

Obviously, Strategy isn’t about to collapse because it sold a tiny piece of its Bitcoin stash. If Bitcoin takes off, MSTR’s premium could expand again, reopen the equity spigot, and send the shorts straight through the drywall.

But shares are already sitting around $98, 76% below their 52-week high. So until Bitcoin rips higher, the company once famous for buying every dip will continue it’s new STRAGERY of selling the dip to pay a 12% coupon. And that’s definitely not the gospel Saylor has spent the last six years preaching on every podcast that would hand him a microphone. 

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Strategy and Bitcoin as mentioned in the article.