In recent months, a recurring concern has circulated about Michael Saylor's company, Strategy. Its cash reserves are dwindling, its dividend burden is mounting, and the company may be forced to sell its Bitcoin holdings. In this article, I'm not focusing on rumors, but rather examining how much of this concern is grounded in reality, looking at the company's official Q2 financials, published on its website on July 30, 2026, and its SEC filings.
In a report published in early July, onchain analytics firm CryptoQuant urged Strategy to halt Bitcoin purchases and rebuild its cash reserves. The report's author, Julio Moreno, stated that the company's dividend obligations had risen from approximately $300 million at the beginning of the year to $1.2 billion, while its cash reserves had eroded by 38 percent and its dividend coverage period had decreased from seven years to 14 months.
Another development that fueled this concern occurred in June. On June 1st, Strategy sold 32 Bitcoin to meet its preferential share dividend obligations, a sale worth $2.5 million and marking the first time the company had broken its previously unwavering "buy only, never sell" stance. The amount was insignificant compared to the company's total assets, but its precedent unnerved the market, with some commentators characterizing these small sales as a leading indicator, suggesting that an increase in such forced sales would signal tightening cash flow for the company. Beyond this, more radical claims circulated in the market, suggesting that a small price drop in Bitcoin would trigger an automatic margin call. This claim was based on a single, low-reliability source and directly contradicts the company data we will see below, so I note it as an example of market speculation, not a finding.
Saylor himself has repeatedly presented counter-arguments to this chart. In a February interview with CNBC, he stated that concerns about being forced to sell Bitcoin were unfounded, emphasizing that the company's net leverage ratio was half that of a typical investment-grade company, and that it only had two and a half years' worth of cash on its balance sheet for dividends.
Now let's compare these claims with the figures the company has released. On the cash side, the picture is moving in a positive direction. Liquid assets, which were $2.4 billion at the end of the quarter, increased to $3.75 billion as of July 26th, based on the company's USD Reserve allocated for dividend and interest payments, which corresponds to a coverage period of 2.1 years. CryptoQuant's stated target of $2.8 billion has thus been surpassed.
The concern on the dividend side is partly justified; the cost is indeed increasing. The STRC ratio increased from 9% in July 2025 to 12% as of July 1, 2026. But this isn't due to a necessity, it stems from an automatic mechanism: every time the share price falls below 95%, the ratio increases by 0.5%, and this increase isn't reversed. The share is still struggling, closing at $89.46 on July 31st, and having fallen as low as $71.25 in June. The high ratio isn't a weakness, but a price paid for parity, but this one-way mechanism is criticized for having a limited number of cycles.
As for the possibility of a forced sell-off, the data largely refutes this claim. The company's debt is not secured, but consists of long-term convertible bonds, meaning there's no collateral mechanism to force a sell-off in the event of a price drop. The nearest maturity is September 2027, and if MSTR shares are above $183 at that time, the debt will be converted into shares. A margin call scenario is technically impossible today.
The sales volume also supports this picture. Since the beginning of the year, the total amount of Bitcoin sold for dividend financing is $218.4 million, less than three-tenths of a percent of total assets. In contrast, the company increased its assets by 25% during the same period, with an 11% growth in Q2 alone. The difference between what was sold and what was bought doesn't align with the forced liquidation narrative.
This doesn't mean it's risk-free. In Q2, the company reported a net loss of $8.22 billion, almost entirely an accounting loss stemming from the revaluation of Bitcoin at fair value, not a cash outflow. But the fact that STRC is still trading below par shows how dependent the company's financial outlook is on the Bitcoin price. If the price remains under pressure for an extended period, liabilities that are easily met today could become challenging over time.
Current official data largely fails to support the claim that Strategy will be forced to sell Bitcoin anytime soon. Its cash reserves have risen above the threshold indicated by CryptoQuant in the last three weeks, its debt structure is unsecured and long-term, meaning it doesn't carry the risk of a classic margin call, and the amount of Bitcoin sold this year has been significantly less than the amount purchased. However, it's not accurate to say the concerns are entirely unfounded. The dividend cost is indeed rising, STRC is still trading significantly below its target price, and the company's entire financial outlook is tightly coupled to the trajectory of the Bitcoin price. The current situation isn't a crisis, but it is a tense situation to watch. Strategy's situation remains dependent not on a fixed outcome, but on Bitcoin's price movement in the coming quarters.
