Recent Strategy they made heads saying it can sell bitcoin to meet business goals. This surprised a lot of people because of what at first seemed like a hard sell. Saylor even (jokingly) wrote things like “Sell a kidney if you have to, but keep the bitcoin.”
The truth is that bitcoin trading has always been on the table for every bitcoin financial company. The quip of “don’t sell” is a long-term wisdom based on short-term interests that is common in the bitcoin context. But even within this context, there are often times when almost everyone agrees that it makes sense to sell, despite the ubiquity of the HODL meme.
The simplest reasons include managing one’s life: buying a foster home, paying for a trip to a destination, sending your kids to college, unexpected expenses and medical problems. The list is very long. HODLing usually doesn’t last long.
For a company, the reason for doing anything (and the reason the company exists) is to increase shareholder value.
Consider another group of bitcoin companies that have been trading. Ours Q1 report shows that Bitcoin miners will sell 25,376 BTC in Q1 2026 to support AI pivots. The math for creating a tree is simple. Management believes their AI capex will provide more risk-adjusted returns than the bitcoin they invested. Under this logic, it makes sense that they sold bitcoin to support AI. In fact, this is reason 0: if there is a better currency than bitcoin, then selling bitcoin for that reason makes sense.
For Strategy—and all financial firms focused on raising capital to acquire bitcoin—there are clear scenarios where trading can generate profits. Let’s go through some of them.
Reason 1: Bitcoin on the block
Bitcoin growth per share (BPS) is the goal of many investment strategies. The BPS yield over time is called the BTC Yield. BTC yields are usually obtained when bitcoin is purchased, which increases the numbers in the BPS ratio. However, it can also be obtained when shares are purchased, which reduces the number of BPS.
If shares sell at a lower price to the bitcoin they represent, then selling bitcoin to sell stock will always result in an increase in BPS. This is because the change in bitcoin prices is still greater than the change in its holdings.
The deduction rule also applies to ongoing transactions (such as preferred stock dividends or debt coupons) that cannot be covered by operating expenses. If shares sell at a low price, then it is better to sell bitcoin to pay for this. This may cause a slight decrease in BPS.
Reason 2: Cost of money and raising money
Because accounting firms have a lot of influence over how the capital markets allocate funds, their rules and guidelines must be respected in order to maximize investment efficiency. In December we published a report on Strategy’s historic S&P ratings. In it we discussed various ways to make companies to receive good interest rates, which will help their debt instruments to get cheap financing.
The investment strategy, which was found in the S&P statement and discussed in our report, was adopted by the Strategy. As of January 2026, Strategy had $2.2 billion in assets, which has eased investors’ fears that it may not be able to return its preferred investments.
In this situation, it is better for a company to sell bitcoin to generate income to attract the market to sell its debt instruments at a lower cost of capital. This may seem confusing, but eventually you will have to meet the beautifiers where they are to give you their money. There is no way around it.
Another option for this is to sell bitcoins to get rid of debt. Bonds are large liabilities that reduce the attractiveness of preferred stocks as debt instruments. If this can be dismissed, then the preferred stock may see a better price for the dividend.
In the long run, a better cost of capital may be more important because of the combination of leverage and leverage in many investments. For example, it’s easy to compound if you pay 9% vs 11.5% – 250 bps extra makes a big difference over time. And you pay less for $1 billion borrowed at 7% than you do for $700 billion borrowed at 11%.
Reason 3: Taxes
Bitcoin does not have a washing law in the USA (at the time of writing). You can sell to realize the loss and buy immediately and re-establish a lower price. This allows you to save money, which is like a tax. In fact, the Strategy actually did this in December 2022 at the end of the previous cycle.
Today this tax benefit still exists, which is another great reason to sell bitcoin. However, many may not see it as a sell-off if the company buys back immediately. But a company can include a tax loss advantage that it has taken in the form of a refund or amortization.
Reason 4: Proving it’s possible
Bitcoin is still new and with that comes a lot of FUD. Sometimes FUD is just silly but still works. The process of selling bitcoin is one of those stupid FUDs: the idea is that they are promoting the entire bitcoin market, or that if they sell the entire bitcoin they will be immediately liquidated. Therefore, if he can sell 50,000 BTC and prove that there is no risk happening in the bitcoin market or stocks, then this will eliminate such thoughts and make the market pay more attention to the type of bitcoin company.
In any case, this may be the most ridiculous reason to do so, but sometimes people come up with stupid ideas that just need to be proven wrong. And a final point on this – the market is often efficient; and media and influencers who are motivated to push sensational and ambiguous stories wherever they can find them. Real investors and investors rarely make decisions based on these “sources” of real research.
Reason 5: Shopping for passion
This is something that people don’t really talk about. But in the case of actual removal of replacement equipment, the company has the opportunity to repurchase the equipment at a much lower price, thus leaving the lowest cost operations.
This is closing the opportunity to win tax-free and loan-free at a company of your choice. For example, STRC is issued at $100. If the stock has dropped to $82 and Strategy sells a billion dollars of BTC to resell STRC at $82 per share, then they made a profit of 100 – 82 = $18 per share of STRC shorted (issued) and bought it back. And this profit is not taxable, nor did Strategy have to borrow shares to make such a short run.
STRC price since IPO
Another important thing to note is that such a download should not be accompanied by a crash in the price of bitcoin. If traders are too excited about STRC (which is possible because of what this stock offers), the drop in the metal can lead to losses and algos that cause the trade to sell. In this case, the Strategy can sell BTC to liquidate some shares of STRC before paying higher fees (here I think they will increase the profit to get the shares back).
The end
Don’t be surprised or scared of bitcoin trading. There are many situations in which it is in the best interest of the company and its shareholders to do so.
Bitcoin is money. Money makes the decision. Choices are good when used well.
