Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy (MSTR) has officially broken its long‑standing ‘never sell’ policy, disclosing its first deliberate BTC disposal in a regulatory filing on Monday. Between May 26 and May 31, the company sold 32 bitcoin at an average net price of $77,135 per coin, generating approximately $2.5 million. The proceeds are earmarked to fund distributions on preferred stock, according to a footnote in the 8‑K filing.
The sale reduces Strategy’s total holdings to 843,706 BTC, with an average purchase price of $75,699 as of May 31. The disposal price was thus above the blended cost basis, but it came just as bitcoin was trading below $72,000 on Monday – a drop of roughly 2.4% on the day, per CoinGecko data.
The move marks a stark reversal of the ‘never sell’ mantra that Chair Michael Saylor had championed for years. Just last month, during the Q1 earnings call, Saylor said the firm would “probably sell some Bitcoin to fund a dividend just to inoculate the market—just to send the message that we did it,” while President and CEO Phong Le added that Strategy “will sell Bitcoin when it’s advantageous to the company.” The comments opened the door to selling BTC to acquire dollars or repurchase debt, provided it was “accretive to Bitcoin per share.”
Market observers had warned that a shift in stance could trigger “short‑term panic.” Shortly after the news, bitcoin’s price slid to just above $72,000, confirming those fears. The filing also notes that the sale was made above the firm’s cost basis, but the symbolic break from the hold‑forever narrative is likely to weigh on sentiment.
While this is Strategy’s first publicly disclosed sale in its treasury strategy, the firm had previously executed a round‑trip transaction: in December 2022 it sold 704 BTC for $11.8 million, only to repurchase 810 BTC two days later in a tax‑loss harvesting maneuver. This recent sale, however, is the first explicitly intended to fund corporate obligations rather than tax optimization.
