Bitcoin traders blamed Saylor’s 32 BTC sale but larger selling pressure built elsewhere
Bitcoin’s recent sell-off was widely linked to Michael Saylor’s Strategy after the company disclosed selling 32 BTC for $2.5 million to fund preferred-stock distributions. But that sale was tiny: just 0.0038% of Strategy’s holdings and a negligible share of daily BTC volume. The broader May picture shows public-company treasury reductions of about 7,500 BTC, led by MARA, Core Scientific, Sequans, and Prenetics, with each sale tied to separate financing or exit decisions. ETF outflows of about $4.4 billion over 13 trading days, Iran-related risk-off sentiment, and more than $90 million in BTC futures liquidations were much larger drivers of the decline. Still, the disclosure matters symbolically because Strategy has been viewed as a permanent corporate buyer. The sale shows that treasury holders can become occasional sellers under financial stress, which could force investors to reprice that “never sell” thesis.
