Michael Saylor told his followers to never sell their Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). But his company did, and Bitcoin has been sliding every day since.



Bitcoin was trading around $64,000 on Wednesday, down 30% on the year and roughly half off its October peak above $126,000.



Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) disclosed Monday that it sold 32 Bitcoin last week for $2.5 million, the company’s first sale since the 2022 crypto winter. The amount is roughly 0.004% of Strategy’s 843,000 Bitcoin treasury, with proceeds reportedly funding distributions on its preferred stock.



TD Cowen analyst Lance Vitanza called the sale immaterial, telling CoinDesk the Bitcoin-reduction narrative is misleading given the scale of Strategy’s holdings. Strategy shares still dropped 7% Wednesday.



Peter Schiff declared this week that the “death spiral has officially begun” after Strategy’s preferred stock (NASDAQ:STRC) broke below $98. It’s now trading at $96.



Schiff also called Ethereum treasury company BitMine’s $300 million raise a page from Saylor’s Ponzi playbook.



<h2>AI Trade And IPO Pipeline Are Draining Crypto Liquidity</h2>



Jake Ostrovskis, head of OTC trading at Wintermute, told the Wall Street Journal that Bitcoin’s recovery may depend on something cooling off elsewhere.



“What we need to get people interested in crypto and Bitcoin again is probably some of the air coming out of the AI trade,” Ostrovskis said.



Speculative capital isn’t just flowing into Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and other chip names. Investors are also hoarding cash for a wave of mega-IPOs headlined by SpaceX and AI giant Anthropic.



A dozen spot Bitcoin ETFs from issuers including BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) and Fidelity have posted 12 consecutive days of outflows totaling about $4 billion, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.



<h2>Iran Tensions Add To Crypto Headwinds</h2>



Continued tensions in the Middle East have rattled oil markets and stoked inflation worries. Those concerns typically hit speculative assets like Bitcoin first.



Polymarket traders are pricing in continued weakness through year-end. The odds of Bitcoin recovering its $126,000 all-time high by December 31 are trading at just 12%, down from 53% in January.



The sale also sparked controversy on Polymarket, where one trader lost $500,000 and said he was “scammed” over the disputed resolution of a Saylor sell market.



Additional sales by Strategy could accelerate the slide. FalconX’s Joshua Lim said it may be “early innings for this change in strategy from Strategy.”



Image: Shutterstock

GBTC

STRK

MSTR

Bitcoin has declined daily since Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) sold 32 BTC for $2.5 million, its first sale since 2022. Despite the small volume relative to its holdings, shares dropped 7%. Analysts deem the sale immaterial, but market sentiment is negative due to capital draining into AI stocks and IPOs, persistent Bitcoin ETF outflows, and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Polymarket odds for a year-end recovery have plummeted.

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Bitcoin Has Dumped Every Day Since Michael Saylor Announced He Sold: What Is Going On?