In brief
- Michael Saylor said on CNBC that the company’s Bitcoin purchases are “accelerating.”
- Bitcoin could fall 80%, and Strategy would still be stable, he said.
- The company’s market cap fell below the value of its Bitcoin holdings.
Strategy’s co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor denied rumors that Strategy is selling its Bitcoin on X, after describing the firm’s hunger for BTC as insatiable—no matter how far its price faults—in a Friday interview on CNBC.
The Bitcoin-buying firm will continue adding to its $62.3 billion stockpile, and remains undeterred by the asset’s recent plunge below the $100,000 mark, he added.
“We are buying Bitcoin, [and] we’ll report our next buys on Monday morning,” he said. “I think people will be pleasantly surprised. In fact, we’ve been accelerating our purchases.”
Meanwhile, onlookers speculated that Strategy could be selling its Bitcoin, citing on-chain movements identified by crypto intelligence platform Arkham Analytics. The movements could signal that Strategy is now using Coinbase as a custodian, Arkham added.
On prediction market Myriad, traders penciled in an 8% chance that Strategy would sell Bitcoin in 2025 on Friday, but those odds had jumped as high as 14% earlier in the day. (Disclaimer: Myriad Markets is a product of Decrypt’s parent company, Dastan.)
Strategy has always maintained that it would never willingly sell Bitcoin, TD Cowen Analyst Lance Vitanza told Decrypt. There are conditions under which Strategy has acknowledged that it would essentially be forced to do so, but they are “highly unlikely,” he added.
Theoretically, Strategy could need to sell Bitcoin to satisfy the maturity of its debt, but the company doesn’t have convertible bonds maturing until 2028, Vitanza noted.
The only selling that Saylor referenced on CNBC was on behalf of “OG holders,” who were taking profits at the $100,000 mark after sitting on their holdings for an extended period.
Last week, Strategy signaled that the debut of Euro-denominated preferred shares in Luxembourg would generate $715 million in proceeds.
Strategy’s stock price has dropped 32% over the past month as Bitcoin has shed a majority of this year’s gains, with MSTR shares trading around $204, according to Yahoo Finance. Bitcoin recently changed hands at $96,365, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko, after falling to a six-month low under $95,000 earlier Friday.
Saylor said he’s “fairly comfortable” with Bitcoin at its current price level, describing the asset’s recent dip as something that formed a base for it to rally from. However, it’s currently difficult to predict where the asset’s price could be at the end of the year, he added.
In response to a question from CNBC’s Joe Kernen, Saylor said the company is “always buying,” but there have been several periods where Strategy didn’t announce a purchase, aligning with the end of each fiscal quarter.
In addition to common stock, Strategy has issued a blend of products to fund its Bitcoin purchases, including convertible bonds and preferred shares that feature dividend payments.
The company’s critics, including short sellers like James Chanos, have questioned the sustainability of Strategy’s business, but Saylor conveyed confidence on Friday.
Saylor said Strategy’s balance sheet is stable, and that Bitcoin’s price could fall 80% and the company would still be overcollateralized in relation to its debt. As of Friday, the company had raised $8.2 billion through convertible bonds, according to its website.
Since dividend payments on Strategy’s preferred shares are declared by the board, Saylor added that there “is no credit default situation” for the products currently worth $7.6 billion.
Echoing Saylor’s outlook on preferred shares, TD Cowen’s Vitanza said “the company is not legally required to make any dividend payments,” but acknowledged that skipping or deferring payments “would obviously impact their ability to issue more preferred shares.”
What’s more, Strategy has a dividend burden of around $735 million per year, and Vitanza said he would be “be very surprised if this were to become a legitimate issue.”
Saylor’s remarks come as the company’s go-to funding mechanism has lost its effectiveness. Historically, the company has issued common stock to grow its Bitcoin holdings, while capitalizing on a premium that its shares have over the value of its Bitcoin stockpile.
On Friday, Strategy had a market cap of $59 billion while owning $62.3 billion worth of Bitcoin, yielding a so-called mNAV, or a multiple-to-net asset value, of nearly 0.95x. Strategy’s website places the informal metric around 1.2x, using a calculation that accounts for Strategy’s debt.
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to include analyst comments.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
