“We are not sellers. We only acquire and hold bitcoin. That is our strategy.” — Michael Saylor, Bloomberg interview, January 2022.
Four and a half years later, the “only buy, never sell” creed long upheld by MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor has been broken.
Between May 26 and May 31, the company sold 32 bitcoins for approximately $2.5 million. Compared to its total bitcoin holdings valued at around $61 billion, the transaction amount is minuscule. The significance, however, lies not in the size but in Saylor's departure from a promise he has emphatically and repeatedly made over the years.
As recently as February 2026, when pressed by CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin on how the company would respond if bitcoin's price fell significantly, Saylor stated, “We would not sell. We would buy more.” He further asserted the company would permanently continue buying bitcoin every quarter, preferring to refinance debt rather than ever sell its holdings.
Now, the stance has completely reversed. On the earnings call following the disclosure of a $12.5 billion net loss for Q1 2026, Saylor changed his tune, stating the company “may sell some bitcoin to fund dividends and manage market expectations.” The company's CFO, Andrew Kang, was more direct: the company will sell bitcoin whenever it is beneficial for corporate operations.
MicroStrategy's core product was never bitcoin itself; its business model essentially allows investors to gain exposure to bitcoin at a premium to the spot price through the company. While this small-scale sale is financially insignificant, the market signal it sends is potent. The world's most prominent and vocal bitcoin maximalist breaking his own vow suggests the unwavering belief system he spent four years building is beginning to erode.
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