Strategy sells 32 BTC for $2.5M to fund preferred stock payouts

CoinMarketCap said recent filings show Strategy sold 32 bitcoin last week for about $2.5 million, at an average price of $77,135 per coin. Following the transaction, the company's bitcoin holdings fell to 843,706 BTC, worth roughly $61 billion at current market prices. Strategy said the proceeds will be used to cover distributions on its preferred stock, marking a shift toward using part of its bitcoin position to support capital structure needs rather than holding solely as a long-term asset. Over the same period, the company issued $128 million of common stock and did not issue its flagship preferred product, STRC, which currently pays an 11.5% annualized dividend distributed monthly. The sale adds to signs that Strategy is moving away from its long-held "never sell Bitcoin" posture. On the May 5 Q1 earnings call, Chairman Michael Saylor said the company could sell some bitcoin to fund dividends. President and CEO Phong Le also said Strategy would sell bitcoin when it benefits the business, including to raise U.S. dollars or support debt-related arrangements, so long as it improves perBitcoin value. Bitcoin dipped after the disclosure, briefly sliding to just above $72,000, down about 2.4% on the day. Market attention has centered less on the size of the sale than on Strategy's explicit acceptance of selling bitcoin under certain conditions. Separately, in the week before the sale, Strategy used about 61% of its dedicated cash buffer—$1.38 billion—to repurchase $1.5 billion of convertible notes. Taken together, the moves suggest a more active rebalancing across crypto holdings, cash and financing instruments. Strategy has sold bitcoin before. In December 2022, it sold 704 BTC and repurchased 810 two days later, largely for tax-loss harvesting.