Bitcoin Surges Past $81,000 as Michael Saylor Says Strategy May Sell BTC for Dividends

Bitcoin zoomed past $81,000 in Asian hours Tuesday, according to CoinDesk market data cited by Bitget, and was up 6.7% on the week. Bitget also said Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor told the company’s Q1 2026 earnings call that it may sell a portion of its bitcoin holdings to fund dividend payments. In that call, Saylor said, "We will probably sell some bitcoin to pay a dividend just to inoculate the market and send the message that we did it." Bitget reported Strategy holds 818,334 $BTC at an average acquisition cost of $75,537 and has not sold any of its position before.

“Bitget App Trade smarter Open [](https://www”

Bitget

As Bitcoin surged past $81,000, Cryptonews.net said spot Bitcoin ($BTC) exchange-traded funds recorded roughly $1 billion in inflows since the cryptocurrency reclaimed $80,000. It reported Bitcoin ETFs posted $467.4 million of inflows on Tuesday, extending Monday’s $532 million inflows, and bringing the two-day total to more than $999 million, citing SoSoValue data. Cryptonews.net also noted the inflows came despite Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor signaling potential Bitcoin sales to meet corporate obligations. In a Roxom TV interview on Tuesday, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said, "Don’t underestimate the firepower of Wall Street wholesalers," referencing the flows.

Beyond spot markets, Decrypt reported crypto VC Haun raised $1 billion for two new funds Monday even as crypto venture capital remained in a slump. Decrypt said April 2026 saw $659 million in crypto VC funding across 63 deals, a 74% drop from March, and that year-to-date 2026 crypto VC stands at $5.64 billion. Decrypt also said the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation will begin live tokenized securities trades in July, with a full commercial launch in October, and quoted DTCC CEO Frank La Salla: "Our vision is coming to fruition: launching our tokenization service and successfully bridging TradFi and DeFi." In the same newsletter, Decrypt added that the Industry Working Group building the service includes Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, Citadel Securities, Circle, Coinbase, Kraken, Anchorage Digital, Ondo Finance, and Fireblocks.

“Spot Bitcoin ($BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have recorded roughly $1 billion in inflows since the cryptocurrency reclaimed $80,000”

Cryptonews.net