Strategy May Be Buying Bitcoin Again Despite Q1 Sell Talk

Strategy CEO Phong Le said last week that Bitcoin’s daily trading volume — averaging more than $60 billion — is large enough to absorb the company’s $1.5 billion in annual dividend payments without moving the market.

That comment preceded co-founder Michael Saylor’s latest post “Back to work, BTC” on X Sunday, a phrase he has used before to signal an imminent purchase.

A Pattern That Repeats

Strategy typically buys Bitcoin the day after Saylor posts that message. The company last bought on April 27, picking up 3,273 coins for around $255 million. That brought its total stash to 818,334 BTC, worth roughly $61.8 billion at the time of publication, according to data from Strategy’s own website. Its average purchase price per coin sits at about $75,537 — meaning the position is up around 7.6%.

Back to work. $BTC pic.twitter.com/HLbBv5Sbbx

— Michael Saylor (@saylor) May 10, 2026

The buying announcement follows a week-long pause Strategy took ahead of its first-quarter 2026 earnings call. During that call, Saylor said something that raised eyebrows: the company might sell some of its Bitcoin from time to time to fund dividends for holders of its credit instruments. For a company that had long held the position of never selling, that statement landed hard.

Reactions From Both Sides

Not everyone took it as bad news. Strategy investor Adam Livingston argued that periodic sales could actually benefit the treasury by helping finance future Bitcoin purchases.

Bitcoin advocate Samson Mow said the ability to sell gives Strategy more flexibility in the financial markets.

BTCUSD trading at $81,116 on the 24-hour chart: TradingView

But others pushed back, warning that a company that both buys and sells Bitcoin at scale could create a cycle that puts downward pressure on the spot price.

Le pushed back on that concern. He told CNBC that Strategy owns about 4% of Bitcoin’s total supply but said he does not believe the company drives prices in either direction. Sales, he said, would be limited to specific situations — covering dividend yields and deferring taxes.

Clarifying The Scope

Saylor offered his own framing during the earnings call. “We’ll probably sell some Bitcoin to fund a dividend, just to inoculate the market, just to send the message that we did it,” he said.

That wording suggests the move is more about signaling than volume — a controlled, deliberate action rather than a broader shift in strategy.

Whether markets read it that way remains to be seen. For now, based on Saylor’s Sunday post, another Bitcoin purchase appears to be coming.

Featured image from Bitpanda, chart from TradingView