By Tomi Kilgore and Frances Yue
The Strategy chair refers ‘with pride’ to shareholders as an ATM. They doled out $43 million last week.
Strategy has sold more common stock to buy bitcoin, and Executive Chair Michael Saylor has posted a video on X in which he raps about using the “equity ATM” in an effort to hurt those who bet against the company and bitcoin.
Strategy has resumed stocking up on bitcoin after a brief pause, and the company’s outspoken CEO has no qualms about saying who’s paying for it – the company’s shareholders.
The company (MSTR), which bills itself as the largest corporate holder of bitcoin (BTCUSD), disclosed Monday that it paid $43 million to buy 535 bitcoin during the week ended May 10, after taking a break from purchasing the cryptocurrency in the prior week for just the second time in 2026. The average price paid for each bitcoin last week was $80,340, or the most since the company paid $87,974 during the week that ended Feb. 2.
The purchases come during the same week that Executive Chair Michael Saylor appeared to reverse course by saying Strategy would “probably sell some bitcoin to fund a dividend” if needed. Back in February, after Strategy’s stock as well as bitcoin both sank to the lowest levels in more than a year, Saylor said “we’re not going to be selling” and would instead likely be buying every quarter “forever.”
But Saylor also suggested that his comments were aimed at short sellers, or those betting against the stock and bitcoin, about how he’d like to make them lose money. The company reported a steep first-quarter loss tied to the drop in the value of its bitcoin holdings.
Saylor on Sunday followed up those comments by posting a video on X of himself singing a rap song to those short sellers, while others bop along, saying he’d like “nothing better than to rip your wings off.”
He also sang about how Strategy was using the equity market “with pride” as an ATM to pay for the company’s bitcoin purchases.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Investors aren’t usually happy when a company sells stock to raise money, because it dilutes the holdings of current shareholders by reducing the percentage of the company that those shareholders own. Strategy investors appear to give the company a pass because the share sales effectively mean they get more exposure to more bitcoin.
Strategy said it had sold 231,324 common shares to the public to raise $42.9 million. The company also sold preferred stock to raise $100,000, to bring the total amount raised to $43 million.
The stock rose 4.5% on Monday, to the highest close since Jan. 30, even as bitcoin fell fractionally. It has soared 81.1% since Feb. 5, when it closed at the lowest price since May 1, 2024, but it was still 59% below its Nov. 20, 2024, record close of $473.83.
In comparison, bitcoin has climbed 28.4% since falling to a 16-month low on Feb. 5 but was still 34.5% below its record close reached on Oct. 6, 2025, according to FactSet data.
-Tomi Kilgore -Frances Yue
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05-11-26 1645ET
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