Strategy (MSTR), the world’s largest publicly traded bitcoin holding company, floated the idea of selling bitcoin to cover its dividend obligations.
CEO Michael Saylor suggested during his first-quarter 2026 earnings call that the company could sell a portion of its bitcoin holdings to fund a dividend payment, stating, “We’ll probably sell some bitcoin to pay a dividend just to inoculate the market and send the message that we did it.”
The company revealed a net loss of $12.54 billion for the fourth quarter, while maintaining a total bitcoin position of 818,334 BTC at an average acquisition cost of $75,537 per coin.
Strategy has an outstanding dividend obligation of approximately $1.5 billion, including annualized preferred stock dividends and interest on outstanding debt. The company has approximately 18 months of dividend coverage, based on its dollar reserves related to these obligations.
Saylor described the model as leveraging credit to acquire Bitcoin, allowing it to appreciate, and then selectively selling portions of the asset to meet dividend commitments.
“You buy bitcoins with credit, let them appreciate, and then sell bitcoins to pay the dividend.
Following the announcement, Strategy shares fell more than 4% in after-hours trading, while bitcoin fell below $81,000.
