Strategy (MSTR), the largest publicly traded company holding Bitcoin, has floated the idea of selling Bitcoin in order to cover its dividend obligations.
Executive Chairman Michael Saylor suggested during the Q1 2026 earnings conference call that the company might sell some of its Bitcoin holdings to fund dividend payments, saying: “We will probably sell Bitcoin to pay a dividend, just to inoculate the market and send the message that we did it.”
The company disclosed 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 unpaid dividend obligation of approximately $1.5 billion, including annualized preferred stock dividends and interest on unpaid debt. The company has approximately 18 months of dividend coverage, based on its USD reserves against these bonds.
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 Bitcoin on credit, let it appreciate, then sell Bitcoin to pay the dividend.
Following the announcement, Strategy’s stock fell more than 4% after hours, while bitcoin fell below $81,000.
