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On last night’s earnings call for Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), Michael Saylor and CEO Phong Le finally admitted that they’re considering selling the company’s bitcoin ($BTC).
This sudden change undoes years of guidance and explicit assurances that Strategy would never sell.
Specifically, Saylor and Le told analysts on the company’s first-quarter earnings webinar that Strategy will probably sell some $BTC to pay a dividend, framing the move as a way to “inoculate” the market as to the company’s new strategy.
Le walked through scenarios in which the company would sell $BTC to fund preferred dividends while remaining a “net buyer.”
Truly, it’s a remarkable reversal of rhetoric.
In January 2022, with $BTC down roughly 40%, Bloomberg asked Saylor whether Strategy would ever sell $BTC.
“Never. No. We’re not sellers. We’re only acquiring and holding $BTC,” Saylor swore to Bloomberg. “That’s our strategy.”
“Never. No. We’re not sellers. We’re only acquiring and holding #Bitcoin, right? That’s our strategy.” -Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy #$BTC $BTC pic.twitter.com/GMaIZbviWg
— Token Metrics (@tokenmetricsinc) January 20, 2022
In February 2024, Saylor reiterated that promise on Bloomberg TV. “There’s just no reason to sell the winner,” Saylor affirmed. “$BTC is the exit strategy.”
‘We call them poor’
In March 2024, Saylor told Yahoo Finance, “We believe that the highest, best use of capital is to buy $BTC and hold the $BTC.”
In that interview, Saylor delivered one of his most famous promises to never sell $BTC which became the basis for a song and endless memes on social media.
Referencing a comparison of $BTC to real estate, Yahoo Finance’s news anchor asked Saylor, “I don’t think that is your endgame, right? You’re not planning to sell the $BTC at any point. So what is the purpose of it over time? You know, what do you do with the $BTC besides it just gather value?… Most of the people who are buying assets at some point want to sell the assets at a profit.”
Saylor responded, “Let me say it a different way. People that use fiat currency as a store of value, there’s a name for them. We call them poor.”
In his Q3 2024 earnings call, Saylor called $BTC a “permanent treasury reserve asset” to be acquired and held indefinitely.
Strategy’s $BTC binge has cost it $1 billion in expenses
‘Never. No. We’re not sellers’
In February 2025, Saylor reiterated his policy. “Never sell your $BTC.”
Later that month, he published his 21 Rules of Bitcoin. Rule 20 stated clearly, “You do not sell your $BTC.”
Also that month, with $BTC sliding below $80,000, Saylor escalated to organ donation. “Sell a kidney if you must, but keep the $BTC.”
In March 2025, he said Strategy would “never sell” its $BTC.
Four months later, he acknowledged the buying pattern that had become his persona: “I’m going to be buying the top forever.”
On CNBC’s Squawk Box TV show in February 2026, Saylor told Andrew Ross Sorkin: “We’re not going to be selling; we’re going to be buying $BTC.” He added he expected the company would buy every quarter forever.
He then spent five years telling shareholders that selling was unthinkable. Last night, he told them that rhetoric was merely a marketing tool.