Michael Saylor's big bet on Bitcoin was supposed to be his downfall. Rather, he was able to make huge profits from his holdings in cryptocurrencies and MicroStrategy stock.
MicroStrategy Inc.'s billionaire executive chairman has sold hundreds of thousands of shares through a stock sale plan he entered into with the company last year, netting him $370 million so far this year, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is said that he earned .
However, this does not include his huge paper profits. As of Friday, Mr. Saylor's total MicroStrategy stock (excluding what is included in the stock sale plan) and his last known personal Bitcoin was worth about $3.49 billion. Since the beginning of this year, this is an increase of about 60%, or more than $1 billion. And since the beginning of 2023, when the cryptocurrency sector began to recover, his stock and Bitcoin holdings have netted him just under $3 billion in paper profits.
MicroStrategy shares have exploded since January as Bitcoin soars to new highs, in part due to the launch of a new exchange-traded fund that tracks Bitcoin. MicroStrategy stock is up 86% after soaring more than 300% in 2023. Shares fell 2.8% on Friday, closing at about $1,174. Meanwhile, Bitcoin rose 46% in 2024 and has soared nearly 300% since the start of 2023.
A former crypto skeptic turned crypto believer, Saylor has made MicroStrategy an agent of Bitcoin's success. Over the past four years, the company has bought up billions of dollars worth of tokens, sometimes with leverage. Microstrategy bought its first Bitcoin token in 2020 when he was CEO, spending $250 million to buy 21,454 of them at an average price of about $12,000.
Four years and multiple purchases later, MicroStrategy now owns over 214,000 Bitcoins, representing approximately 1% of all tokens in circulation. At a price of about $64,000 per Bitcoin on Saturday, MicroStrategy's holdings are worth about $13.7 billion. Saylor owns about 12% of the company, so his net worth of just under $4 billion primarily includes his stock holdings and his personal assets of more than 17,000 bitcoins. forbes.
MicroStrategy did not respond immediately luckThis is a comment request from .
But Thaler wasn't always so lucky. After he became a millionaire through MicroStrategy during his dot com boom, Saylor faced his biggest obstacle. In 2000, MicroStrategy revealed that its revenue since 1999 was 25% lower than originally claimed. This accounting scandal cost him $6 billion in losses in one day. This was the highest amount ever lost by a single person in his 24 hours. The SEC charged him with violating federal securities laws later that year, but he settled the case by paying the SEC $8 million without admitting wrongdoing.
After that, Saylor's Bitcoin moves were labeled as crazy by investors and analysts. That's at least one analyst, David Trainer of research firm New Constructs, said. luck In 2022, Mr. Saylor claimed that he had “materially misallocated investor capital” with his Bitcoin purchases.
“From a lunatic standpoint, Saylor is 'Elon Jr.' with no business talent,” Trainor said at the time.
For a while, it seemed like the naysayers were right. After MicroStrategy made a fortune (at least on paper) when Bitcoin hit an all-time high in November 2021, its approach backfired when Bitcoin prices plummeted. MicroStrategy was one of the worst-performing large-cap stocks in 2022, mainly due to the decline in Bitcoin prices.
Still, Thaler never wavered in his dedication. Last month, Saylor told CNBC that Bitcoin would become a “gold hog” and replace gold as the most popular store of value.
To determine how MicroStrategy's plan to become the go-to agent for Bitcoin pans out, especially after several spot Bitcoin ETFs aimed at doing the same were approved by the SEC in January. It may still be too early.
But Mr. Saylor has millions of newly minted dollars and is not worried in the slightest.
“Is there any company in the world you wouldn't want to invest in that could borrow $1 billion at less than 1% interest to invest in your best idea?” he told CNBC.
