Strategy Opens Door to Bitcoin Sale for STRC Dividends

Strategy’s Bitcoin Holdings and First-Quarter Loss

Strategy remains the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder, with 818,334 BTC as of May 3, 2026. The company’s Bitcoin holdings represented 22% year-to-date growth, with an original cost basis of $61.81 billion and a market value of $64.14 billion based on an approximate $75,537 average cost per Bitcoin and an approximate $78,374 market price per Bitcoin as of May 1, 2026.

Strategy reported a first-quarter 2026 net loss of $12.54 billion, or $38.25 per diluted common share, compared with a $4.22 billion net loss, or $16.49 per diluted common share, in the first quarter of 2025. The loss was driven by a $14.46 billion unrealized loss on digital assets.

Strategy had $2.21 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of March 31, 2026, down from $2.30 billion as of December 31, 2025. Bitcoin fell nearly 24% during the first quarter before rebounding in recent weeks, helping Strategy recover part of the unrealized losses that hit its results.

Bitcoin had climbed about 18% over the previous month to a recent price of $81,750 after dipping near $60,000 earlier in the year, while remaining about 35% below its record above $126,000 set the prior October. Bitcoin later held above $81,000 during choppy trading before moving above $82,000 and reaching $82,751 around noon UTC on Wednesday.

STRC Becomes a Core Financing Engine

Strategy raised $11.68 billion year to date as of May 3, 2026, while STRC alone raised $5.58 billion. STRC’s growth reached 189% year to date, making the preferred-share product a central financing engine for continued Bitcoin accumulation.

STRC’s dividend schedule shows an annualized rate rising from 11.00% in January to 11.25% in February and 11.50% from March through May. Monthly dividends were $0.92 in January, $0.94 in February, and $0.96 for March, April and May.

Strategy said it expects preferred-equity distributions to be treated as non-taxable return of capital for U.S. federal income tax purposes for the foreseeable future, defined as 10 years or more. Strategy also warned that special tax considerations may apply and that shareholders should consult tax advisers.

Andrew Kang, Strategy Chief Financial Officer, said Strategy is the “dominant issuer of Digital Credit in the world,” with more than $13.5 billion of preferred equity outstanding and 23 consecutive preferred-equity distributions paid on time and in full, totaling more than $693 million since early 2025.

Michael Saylor, Strategy Founder and Executive Chairman, said STRC has scaled to $8.5 billion in nine months and is now the largest preferred stock by market capitalization in the world. Saylor also said STRC has a 2.53 Sharpe ratio, $150 million held in corporate treasuries including Prevalon, Strive and Anchorage, and more than $270 million held across DeFi protocols such as Apyx and Saturn.

Strategy has proposed a shareholder vote to double STRC’s dividend payment frequency to a semi-monthly schedule. Saylor said the change would improve STRC’s attractiveness by enhancing liquidity and price stability.

Saylor Frames Possible Bitcoin Sale as Market Conditioning

Saylor said Strategy could sell a small amount of Bitcoin to fund dividends, marking a tactical break from his long-running public “never sell Bitcoin” stance. He framed the potential move as a market-conditioning exercise rather than a survival sale or debt-management move.

“We’ll probably sell some Bitcoin to fund a dividend, just to inoculate the market, just to send the message that we did it,” Saylor said, adding that the purpose would be to show that the company, Bitcoin and the industry remain intact after such a sale.

Saylor later posted that “BTC capital gains fund STRC credit dividends,” reinforcing the message that Strategy may use Bitcoin appreciation as part of the economic engine supporting preferred-share payouts. The potential sale would be Strategy’s first after roughly five years of accumulation.

Strategy skipped its weekly Bitcoin purchase for only the second time in 2026 before the earnings update. The dividend-funding comments therefore arrived alongside both a buying pause and a heavy Bitcoin-driven accounting loss.

A substantial portion of the 145,834 BTC acquired in 2026 was financed through preferred stock offerings. Saylor described Stretch as a potential candidate to become “the largest credit instrument in the world,” arguing that liquidity and adoption could accelerate as assets under management increase.

Saylor said Bitcoin-focused DeFi platforms including Pendle and Saturn had begun tokenizing STRC-linked dividend exposure, turning preferred-stock income streams into tradable on-chain products. “Eight or twelve weeks ago, this wasn’t even being discussed,” Saylor said, adding that he now sees about three dozen initiatives.

MSTR was recently trading at $183.45 and was up nearly 44% over the previous month. An earlier after-hours reaction following the earnings release showed the stock down 4.33% near $178.80 as investors weighed Strategy’s expanding Bitcoin exposure and Saylor’s changed tone on future BTC sales.

The core risk is that perpetual preferred shares do not mature, but dividend obligations can become harder to maintain if Bitcoin weakness persists for an extended period. Saylor’s willingness to sell limited BTC for dividends is being read as a pressure-release mechanism for the STRC model rather than a full retreat from Bitcoin accumulation.