Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy, has defended the company’s first reported Bitcoin sale since 2022, arguing that the ability to sell BTC when necessary is integral to issuing “digital credit” products. The comments come as Strategy continues to frame Bitcoin not just as a treasury asset, but as the backing for securities designed to generate yield.
In a June 1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Strategy disclosed it sold 32 BTC—an action that contrasted with Saylor’s long-standing public message to “never sell your Bitcoin.” Speaking to Cointelegraph at the BTC Prague conference, Saylor said the logic is simple: digital-credit instruments only retain value if the issuer can manage its collateral and obligations.
Key takeaways
- Strategy disclosed a 32 BTC sale on June 1, marking its first reported BTC sale since 2022.
- Saylor argues “digital credit” requires the practical ability to sell Bitcoin to support credit-linked products and dividends.
- He positioned Strategy’s STRC preferred stock as a credit instrument backed by the company’s Bitcoin balance sheet.
- Saylor described digital credit markets as a potential “trillion-dollar opportunity,” including yield targets he claimed could reach up to 8%.
- Recent stress in apxUSD highlights how digital-credit collateral and liquidity can be tested when BTC and related assets move sharply.
Why Strategy sold Bitcoin after “never sell” messaging
Strategy’s filing—covering a sale of 32 BTC—was widely notable because it came after years in which Saylor’s rhetoric emphasized holding. In his remarks at BTC Prague, Saylor reframed the issue around the function of Bitcoin within Strategy’s business model.
He said that Bitcoin treasury companies that issue credit-linked securities must retain the ability to sell holdings when needed. In his explanation, if a company commits to never selling its BTC, the resulting credit products lose the flexibility investors rely on—meaning the securities’ perceived value could deteriorate.
“If the company’s policy is that we won’t sell the Bitcoin, then the credit won’t have value and the equity won’t have value,” Saylor said, adding: “The company is in the business of selling digital credit. The credit is backed by capital. Bitcoin is capital.”
The distinction Saylor drew matters for investors trying to understand the risk structure of Bitcoin-backed credit instruments. For holders of treasury-backed securities, the question is not whether BTC is “sold or not” in every scenario—it’s whether the issuer can actively manage collateral to meet obligations without undermining the product’s credit economics.
“Digital credit” as a Bitcoin use case
Saylor described digital credit markets as the next phase of Bitcoin finance, asserting they could enable yield-bearing digital money products. He argued that Bitcoin is a “digital transformation of capital,” and that instruments such as STRC represent a transformation of credit.
According to Saylor, digital credit products can offer yields “of up to 8%,” which he said is multiple times higher than traditional savings accounts. While the headline yield claim is framed as an outcome possible in these markets, the underlying premise is that Bitcoin collateral can be structured to support credit obligations and dividend-style distributions.
For Strategy, that thesis is not abstract. Saylor pointed to STRC preferred stock as an example of a “digital credit” instrument that uses Strategy’s Bitcoin balance sheet to support credit responsibilities. He also suggested that these securities have become a primary pathway for raising capital to acquire additional Bitcoin.
That broader model shifts the lens for market watchers. Instead of treating Strategy as only a spot BTC holder, Saylor’s comments place the firm inside a credit origination and balance-sheet engineering framework—one where collateral liquidity, market drawdowns, and dividend mechanics may determine whether the product performs as designed.
Market stress test: apxUSD depeg linked to STRC collateral
Saylor’s bullish framing on digital credit came alongside a concrete example of how these systems can face pressure during volatile market moves. On June 4, Apyx Finance’s dividend-backed synthetic stablecoin, apxUSD, reportedly depegged to as low as $0.90 while Bitcoin traded below $63,000 and STRC shares fell below their $100 par value.
In a report on the depeg, Apyx attributed the decline to changes in the value of STRC, which is described as the stablecoin’s primary collateral asset. As STRC’s value dropped, Apyx said the protocol’s reserve value was reduced. The company also pointed to factors including falling Bitcoin prices, thinning liquidity, and derivative-driven market dynamics.
At press time in Cointelegraph’s reporting, apxUSD was trading around $0.96—still below its $1 peg. The episode underscores a key investor question for digital credit products: even if the mechanism is designed to create yield, what happens when the underlying collateral and the market plumbing both deteriorate at the same time?
The implication is that issuers and borrowers in these structures may rely not only on long-term collateral value, but also on short-term liquidity conditions. In that sense, Saylor’s insistence on having the ability to sell Bitcoin when necessary directly intersects with the kind of collateral stress that depegs and drawdowns can trigger.
What to watch next for Bitcoin-backed credit
Saylor’s defense of the Bitcoin sale is ultimately a statement about operational flexibility in digital-credit systems—particularly how issuers manage collateral across market downturns. For investors, the next signals to monitor are how Strategy and similar operators disclose collateral management policies, and whether stablecoin and synthetic credit products can hold their structure when BTC and collateral-linked securities move quickly.
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