Michael Saylor’s Billion-Dollar Bitcoin Bet Has Rebounded

By Landon Manning

Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy’s founder and executive chairman, has seen his bold bet on bitcoin vindicated as BTC’s price has risen dramatically since his resignation as CEO.

A longtime Bitcoin advocate, Saylor began publicly purchasing large amounts of bitcoin in 2020, devoting MicroStrategy’s resources to several high-profile acquisitions that built up a reserve of nearly $2 billion worth by 2022. Although he began these purchases with the bitcoin price at around $10,000, the price had reached more than $30,000 by August 2022, roughly where the price sits at the time of this writing. Many of the firm’s largest purchases were at the higher end of this premium, and Saylor resigned from his position as CEO that same month as MicroStrategy reported a $1 billion loss related to a bitcoin price slump.

After Saylor’s resignation, poor performance from bitcoin turned worse as the cryptocurrency exchange FTX cratered in spectacular fashion in November 2022. Through the rest of the year, the bitcoin price remained at around half of what it was when Saylor and MicroStrategy made many of its purchases. However, rising from these lows, the cryptocurrency rose dramatically and consistently throughout 2023 until seeming to generally recover from this valley.

One year on from his departure from leading MicroStrategy, it seems that Saylor’s persistence is bearing fruit. Although he resigned from his position as CEO, responsible for day-to-day management and operations of his company, he did retain a role as executive chairman of its board, leading the company’s shareholders and representing the firm publicly. With a focus on continuing the firm’s bitcoin strategy, Saylor continued buying thousands of bitcoin at reduced prices, and his commitment seems to be paying off.

In a recent tweet, Saylor noted MicroStrategy’s 254% increase in stock price since the beginning of his strategy, comparing it to the stock prices of firms like Google and Apple, which rose 78% and 74%, respectively. The decision to publicly tie MicroStrategy’s fortune to bitcoin has, at least for now, led to gains unrelated to the firm’s core products and offerings. This month, the company revealed a plan to sell $750 million of its stock, ostensibly to make further large purchases of bitcoin, and its value rose when the news broke.

Saylor’s work with Bitcoin has gone beyond this high-profile advocacy, as he has taken to development work on the Lightning Network in the past year as well. More than anything, these displays of conviction have shown that his commitment to Bitcoin’s economic vision are genuine, rather than based merely on the dollar price at any given time.

This decision to wholeheartedly back Bitcoin has seemingly turned into a durable business strategy, capable of weathering and surmounting significant tempests in the global economy.

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