JPMorgan warns of Strategy's new Bitcoin sales policy. In a recent report, the large US bank calls the arrangement an "avoidable" two-way risk. This is because the single largest buyer of the cryptocurrency can now also act as a seller.
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) is a listed US company. Since 2020, under founder and chairman Michael Saylor, it has held Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve. Until now, the company financed purchases through share and bond issuance. The report's author is Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, a managing director at the bank. Originally, the company followed a pure accumulation approach with no sales. However, on 29 June 2026 Strategy announced the "Digital Credit Capital Framework". For the first time, this systematically opens the door to Bitcoin sales as a financing tool. The company holds roughly 847,363 BTC, about 4.2% of total supply. Therefore, JPMorgan calls for a liquidity reserve covering 24 to 36 months of dividends. Only then can investors trust that further sales will stop. At present, the reserve covers only around 17 months.
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JPMorgan calls for a larger liquidity reserve from Strategy
The large US bank published the report overnight into 2 July 2026. In it, the institution calls Strategy's new policy an "avoidable" "two-way flow risk" for the Bitcoin market. The point is that the company no longer acts solely as a structural buyer. Instead, it could also offload holdings when needed. Ultimately, the bank treats exactly this two-sidedness as a new burden on the market.
At the center stands the demand for a larger liquidity reserve. Specifically, JPMorgan wants Strategy to hold 24 to 36 months of dividend payments. Only then could investors trust that further Bitcoin sales will not happen. At present, however, the cash reserve of roughly USD 2.25 billion covers only about 17 months. As a result, the company sits well below the threshold the bank considers reassuring. Strategy itself calculates differently. With authorized Bitcoin sales of up to USD 1.25 billion added, the company says coverage reaches a good two years.
Panigirtzoglou also points to the tight coupling between the equity valuation and the Bitcoin price. The company's valuation ties inseparably to the price of the cryptocurrency. As a result, more uncertainty and volatility in crypto markets could weigh on the firm's valuation. Consequently, the cost of issuing shares and bonds, which Strategy uses to finance further Bitcoin purchases, would rise. Thus a self-reinforcing effect threatens: falling prices make financing more expensive, which makes new purchases harder.
Strategy opens the door to Bitcoin sales with its new framework
The trigger for the warning is the "Digital Credit Capital Framework", which Strategy announced on 29 June 2026. The rules authorize the sale of up to USD 1.25 billion in Bitcoin. This money feeds a USD reserve for preferred dividends and interest payments. The sales serve solely the USD reserve for payment obligations, not new investments. In addition, a minimum coverage of twelve months applies to these obligations. For a company that only accumulated since 2020, this is a structural break.
The framework goes beyond pure sales, however. At the same time, Strategy raised the STRC preferred dividend from 11.5% to 12% as of 1 July 2026. Furthermore, the company authorized two buyback programs of up to USD 1 billion each. One covers digital credit securities such as STRC, STRF, STRD and STRK, the other Class A common shares. Both programs run without an expiration date.
Beforehand, one event had already exposed the market's nervousness. At the end of May 2026, the company sold 32 BTC worth around USD 2.5 million to finance dividends. The disclosure in early June unsettled investors. Ultimately, it contributed to a price drop of more than 50% from the all-time high at the end of 2025. Nevertheless, CEO Phong Le frames the strategy shift as a deliberate evolution.
"Strategy is evolving from one-directional capital issuance to active capital management. We intend to alternate between issuing securities at attractive capital terms and repurchasing securities when our instruments trade at levels that make buybacks value-accretive." - Phong Le, CEO, Strategy Inc.
Why Strategy's weight moves the Bitcoin market disproportionately
Strategy's importance for the Bitcoin market stems from sheer size. With roughly 847,363 BTC, the company holds about 4% to 4.2% of total supply. It is therefore the largest single holder worldwide. The flow is even more telling. According to JPMorgan, Strategy's purchases accounted for around 70% of estimated net crypto inflows in 2026. In 2026 alone, the company invested roughly USD 13.7 billion in Bitcoin by the bank's estimate. Moreover, the bank had already warned repeatedly of concentration risks in Bitcoin-backed corporate financing.
This concentration therefore makes any change in buying policy systemically relevant. When a single actor supplies the bulk of net demand, any pullback matters. Its withdrawal or even a sale then weighs disproportionately on the price. At the same time, the ETF market already shows weakness. Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded net outflows of around USD 4 billion in June 2026. A 13-day outflow streak turned annual flows negative for the first time. If Strategy partly drops out as a buyer, the market thus loses a central support.
STRC stays below par despite the price recovery
Initially, the market reacted positively to the new framework. The MSTR share rose around 20% since the announcement of 29 June 2026 and last traded at about USD 93.39. Measured against the low of roughly USD 82 on 26 June 2026, that amounts to a gain of nearly 14%. Over the longer term, however, the picture stays clouded: compared with the year-earlier level, the share remains down around 75%.
Not all instruments benefit from the recovery, however. The STRC preferred shares last traded at around USD 87.50. That sits below the par value of USD 100 needed for profitable new issuance. As long as these securities trade below par, a central financing channel of the framework stays constrained.
The broader Bitcoin market, meanwhile, looked friendlier. Bitcoin rose as much as 3.4% to around USD 62,127 on 2 July 2026. The trigger, however, was not Strategy but a weak US labor market report. The US economy created only 57,000 new jobs in June, well below the consensus expectation of 110,000 to 129,000. Weaker labor market data feed expectations of rate cuts, which supports riskier assets such as Bitcoin.
