A Strategy That Never Sells Coins—It Has Opened a Permanent Coin-Selling Channel

Original title: Strategy That Never Sells Bitcoin Opens a Permanent Selling Pipeline

Original author: BlockBeats

Original source:

Reprinted by: Mars Finance

Saylor spent four years telling everyone that Strategy would never sell Bitcoin. On June 29, his company released a document called the "Digital Credit Capital Framework," the core of which allows Strategy to sell up to $1.25 billion worth of Bitcoin. After the news came out, MSTR rose nearly 7% in pre-market trading.

A company that believed in "never sell" announced a Bitcoin selling plan, and the market treated it as good news. This is worth examining.

From 32 Coins to $1.25 Billion

In late May, according to CoinDesk, Strategy quietly sold 32 Bitcoins, worth about $2.5 million. It was the first sale since 2022, with a straightforward purpose: to pay preferred stock dividends. At that time, MSTR fell, as investors felt that Saylor's promise of "never sell" was broken.

A month later, the framework document increased the selling limit by 500 times.

At current prices, this limit equals about 20,000 Bitcoins, representing 2.5% of Strategy's total holdings.

But the scale change is just the surface. The real shift is in nature. According to Strategy's 8-K filing, the May sale was classified as "ad-hoc," meaning temporary and occasional. The new framework is an institutionalized pipeline with four clear purposes: to bolster dollar reserves, pay preferred stock dividends and interest, repurchase its own preferred shares, and buy back MSTR common stock.

Selling Bitcoin is no longer a temporary fix but has become part of operating tools. Strategy CEO Phong Le used direct language in the announcement, saying the company is "shifting from one-way capital issuance to active capital management." From exception to institution, only one month passed. The question is: what is driving this change behind the scenes?

The More the Price Falls, the Higher the Rate

The answer lies in Strategy's largest preferred stock, STRC.

STRC is a perpetual preferred stock issued in July 2025, with a face value of $100. According to a BusinessWire announcement, the issuance size was about $8.5 billion, making it the world's largest single preferred stock. STRC has a unique mechanism: its coupon rate is not fixed but resets monthly. Theoretically, raising the rate can attract buyers and stabilize the price.

In practice, it has been constantly adjusted. According to dividend records on strcincome.com, STRC's rate has risen from 9% to 12% within a year. It was adjusted eight times in a year, roughly once every six weeks, each time meaning Strategy had to pay a little more for the world's largest preferred stock.

But raising rates did not stabilize the price; instead, it fell further. According to data from stockanalysis.com, STRC dropped from face value to $74.57, deviating by more than 25%.

Related reading: "STRC Falls Below $80, Can Financial Products Speculators Still Buy the Dip?"

The divergence in the chart began accelerating in early 2026. Every time the rate is raised, Strategy has to pay more per share; every time the price drops, the market doesn't believe it can afford the payments. Rate hikes were supposed to be a stabilizer but turned into an accelerator.

How expensive is this divergence? STRC's principal size is $8.5 billion, with the current rate at 12%.

Just this one item alone means annualized dividends exceed $1 billion.

Strategy also has three other preferred stocks—STRK, STRF, STRD—and about $6.7 billion in convertible bonds. According to company announcements, the total annualized fixed obligations of the entire capital structure reach $1.76 billion.

What does $1.76 billion mean? It's roughly equivalent to burning $4.8 million per day.

According to the same announcement, Strategy's dollar reserves are $2.55 billion. At this consumption rate, it can last about a year and a half. Adding the Bitcoin liquidation limit under the framework, the coverage period can extend to more than two years.

This is the reason for the framework's existence. It is not about dumping Bitcoin on the market but providing an oxygen tube for an increasingly expensive capital structure.

What If the Price Falls Further?

How long the framework can last depends on the price of Bitcoin. This is a simple but brutal math problem.

At the current price, the framework limit would require selling about 20,000 Bitcoins, representing 2.5% of total holdings. This proportion seems manageable. However, the chart below shows that as the price falls, the number of Bitcoins needed to be sold rises rapidly. If Bitcoin drops 40%, the same amount of money would require nearly double the quantity.

More noteworthy is the scenario outside the framework. According to VanEck's analysis, if all annualized obligations need to be covered by selling Bitcoin, under the most extreme price assumptions, Strategy would need to sell nearly 50k Bitcoins in a year, representing 5.8% of its holdings.

Hidden within this is a self-reinforcing cycle. A drop in Bitcoin's price will lower MSTR's net asset value multiple. According to Trefis's analysis, MSTR's current mNAV is about 0.64 times, meaning the market values each dollar of Bitcoin held by Strategy at only 64 cents.

What does an mNAV below 1 mean? At this discount level, issuing shares at market price (ATM) is equivalent to selling its Bitcoin at a discount. According to multiple institutional analyses, this channel, which was once Strategy's main financing route, is effectively frozen.

Few options remain. If dollar reserves gradually deplete and STRC's detachment continues to worsen, the rate will be forced to rise again. Rate increases raise annualized obligations, forcing Strategy to sell more Bitcoin, and more selling pressure further depresses Bitcoin's price. Selling itself may not necessarily break the cycle; instead, it could accelerate it.

However, the 5.8% annual consumption is the most extreme assumption. According to the announcement, Strategy's reserves plus the framework limit total $3.8 billion, enough to cover more than two years of obligation payments. In the short term, large-scale Bitcoin sales are not needed.

The market's 7% rise might be explained here. Before the framework was announced, investors were pricing in a worse scenario: Strategy might be forced to sell Bitcoin in a disorderly manner, or even fail to pay preferred stock dividends. The framework replaced panic with an institutionalized solution. According to Bohan Jiang, a senior derivatives trader at FalconX, the framework is "positive for both common and preferred stock holders."

But the relief of liquidity anxiety does not mean the structural problem is solved. The $1.76 billion annualized obligation will not decrease because of the framework, and STRC's rate is still at 12%. If Bitcoin's price does not recover, the length of this oxygen tube can be calculated.