Strategy (MSTR) CEO Says Bitcoin Selloff Was About Market ‘Inoculation,’ Not Regression
CEO of Strategy Inc. Phong Le somewhat pushed back on Tuesday against the wave of criticism that followed the company’s first Bitcoin sale since 2022, telling CNBC’s Power Lunch that the move was a deliberate, limited exercise designed to reflect operational flexibility — not a change in philosophy.
“We wanted to inject the market and we wanted to test our processes,” Le said in what the network described as an initial interview. “We learned that everything works.”
Between May 26 and May 31, Strategy sold 32 Bitcoins for about 2.5 million dollars at an average price of $77,135 per coin – an activity that, despite representing 0.004% of the company’s total capital, triggered a foreign market reaction and a debate on whether the famous doctrine of Michael Saylor was left “neverine”.
Le was careful to frame the liquidation in terms of balance sheet management rather than condemnation. He cited three reasons for the sale: to establish that the Strategy can sell if necessary, to ensure that the internal systems for the disposal of Bitcoin are fully operational, and to create opportunities to capture tax losses on Bitcoin obtained on the basis of low costs – the company bought BTC at prices ranging from $10,000 to $125,000 per coin.
Sadly, he said the sale was not due to financial problems. “We didn’t need to sell our Bitcoin to satisfy our dividends,” Le said. “We are able to do that through other fundraising activities.” Proceeds from the sale were directed toward the distribution of the company’s STRC perpetual preferred stock.
Le also pointed out that Strategy remained a net buyer: on balance, the company bought about 1,500 Bitcoin at the same time that it sold 32 coins.
The most notable exchange came when the host pressed Le on the backlash from investors who believed Strategy had committed to not liquidating its Bitcoin reserves. Le acknowledged his frustration but did not apologize.
“We have a set of entities that we have to be able to respond to,” he said, listing common stockholders, preferred stockholders, bondholders, and Bitcoin holders. “If it makes sense for our common owners to sell our Bitcoin, we will.”
Le suggested that the biggest critics are retail investors and “crypto anarchists” who are ideologically committed to holding forever – not the institutional shareholders the company directly deals with.
“The shareholders of our institutions that we spoke to seem not to be alarmed by that,” he said.
This wasn’t Strategy’s first Bitcoin dump. In December 2022, the company sold 704 BTC at $16,776 per coin and repurchased 810 BTC two days later – a tax loss harvesting technique that exploited the lack of crypto wash-sale legislation.
Jeffrey’s chief market strategist David Zervos, who joined Le on set, asked about the big picture surrounding Bitcoin, noting weakness in all traditional safe assets. Le acknowledged the broad volatility, citing three major forces weighing on Bitcoin: uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s interest rate path, two ongoing global wars, and a lack of regulatory clarity from Congress regarding pending crypto legislation.
Still, Le remained bullish on Bitcoin’s long-term thesis.
“I think Bitcoin is a hedge against inflation. I think Bitcoin is a hedge against central government,” he said, adding that the current position – which could potentially drag down the cycle – shows a 75% retracement seen in May 2022, four years ago.
Bitcoin price and Strategy shares under pressure
The market, meanwhile, is a little sanguine. Bitcoin was trading at around $61,600 on June 10, 2026 – down more than 40% from its all-time high of $126,198 reached in October 2025. The sell-off deepened after the Group announced record ETF outflows estimated at between $2.8 billion and $3.5 billion.
MSTR shares are caught in a similar pattern, trading around $117–$127 as of this week – down nearly 67% from their 52-week high of $457.
The strategy has since resumed buying, gaining 1,550 BTC at an average price of 65,332 between June 1 and June 7 in a move that analysts see as an attempt to restore market confidence.
As of late May, the company held 845,256 Bitcoin with a total base value of approximately $63.97 billion.
