The Largest Bank In America Just Issued A Major Warning About Strategy’s Bitcoin Plan

JPMorgan published a note this week flagging concerns about Strategy’s recent decision to sell Bitcoin (BTC), warning the policy could introduce what the bank calls “two-way risk” into crypto markets — and that the company may need to do considerably more to reassure investors it won’t be forced to sell again.

Sell Equity, Not Bitcoin 

The analysts, led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, made the case that Strategy’s size in the Bitcoin market is itself the problem. The company has bought roughly $13.7 billion worth of Bitcoin this year alone, making it the largest buyer of the asset on the planet. 

That scale cuts both ways, the analysts claimed. They asserted that when a buyer of that size signals it may also become a seller, the market has to price in movement from both directions simultaneously, creating flow risk that affects prices regardless of what Strategy ultimately does.

The specific trigger was Strategy’s recently disclosed plan to sell up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin to strengthen its balance sheet, as pressure has mounted on both its common and preferred stock, MSTR and STRC, respectively. 

The analysts said that selling Bitcoin is the wrong response. What the company actually needs, in their view, is a cash buffer covering 24 to 36 months of obligations, funded through common equity issuance, even if that means the stock trades at a discount to the value of its Bitcoin holdings. 

That kind of runway, they argued, is what it would take to convince investors that future Bitcoin sales are off the table. Still, JPMorgan did outline what a better second half of the year could look like. 

A recovery in sentiment around the company, the analysts said, would require two things — Strategy materially expanding its dollar reserves, and Congress passing the CLARITY Act, the crypto market structure bill currently moving through the Senate.

One Part Of Strategy Is Still Working 

But amid the company’s current conditions, its internal performance metric has held up. Bitcoin yield — the measure of how much Bitcoin the company holds per share, accounting for dilution — grew 9.4% year to date through May 2026, against a full-year figure of 22.8% in 2025. 

The company added around 63,410 Bitcoin in the first four months of this year, already about 62% of what it accumulated across all of last year. Bitcoin per share climbed from roughly 181,030 satoshis in May 2025 to 213,371 satoshis a year later — an 18% increase. 

The underlying accumulation strategy is working. Whether it can withstand the balance sheet pressure building around it is what JPMorgan is raising the alarm about.

Featured image generated with OpenArt.