Bitcoin
Bitcoin
The bitcoin price has rebounded back above $60,000 per bitcoin from a crash at the beginning of the week even as JPMorgan analysts quietly predict a so-called “debasement trade” could fuel a bitcoin price boom going into the U.S. election.
Now, after the mystery of bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto took a surprise turn, Michael Saylor, founder and executive chairman of MicroStrategy, has revealed the company’s endgame is to become a bitcoin investment bank—and to buy up to $150 billion of bitcoin.
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Michael Saylor, the founder of MicroStrategy, has transformed the software company into a … [+]
“[Bitcoin] is the most valuable asset in the world,” Saylor, who began buy bitcoin at the software-turned-bitcoin acquisition vehicle in 2020, told Bernstein analysts in an interview it was revealed by Bernstein digital asset lead Gautam Chhugani in a note to clients seen by The Block.
“The endgame is to be the leading bitcoin bank, or merchant bank, or you could call it a bitcoin finance company,” Saylor said, with MicroStrategy creating bitcoin capital market instruments across equity, convertibles, fixed income and preferred shares.
“If we end up with $20 billion of converts, $20 billion of preferred stock, $10 billion of debt and say $50 billion billion of some kind of debt instrument and structures instrument, we’ll have $100 billion to $150 billion of bitcoin.”
Saylor has built up a hoard of just over 252,000 bitcoin worth $15.7 billion at MicroStrategy by issuing debt to fund bitcoin purchases—a strategy that could mean MicroStrategy gets “margin called” with a demand for extra capital if the bitcoin price should fall below a certain level—but one that Saylor intends to continue.
“I think it’s infinitely scalable,” Saylor replied. “I don’t have any problem seeing how we could raise $100 billion more capital and then $200 billion after that. It’s a trillion dollar asset class going to $10 trillion and then going to $100 trillion. The risk is very simple—it’s bitcoin. You either believe bitcoin is something, or you believe it’s nothing.”
While other companies who have dabbled in bitcoin—such as Elon Musk’s Tesla or Wall Street giant BlackRock—have either used gains to fund their businesses or looked to extract fees from clients, Saylor’s strategy is more simple.
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The bitcoin price has surged this year, helping MicroStrategy’s share price add a massive 500% over … [+]
“We just keep buying more bitcoin,” Saylor said. “Bitcoin is going to go to millions a coin, you know, and then we create a trillion dollar company,” he said, predicting the bitcoin price will hit $13 million by 2045 as it goes from 0.1% of global financial capital to 7%.
MicroStrategy stock has rocketed higher along with the bitcoin price over the last year, outpacing bitcoin as the company’s shares attract buyers who want bitcoin exposure but don’t want to pay the fees associated with the new spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that debuted earlier this year.
The bitcoin price has added 50% since January while MicroStrategy’s stock has surged by just over 200%.
“On a relative basis vs. bitcoin, [MicroStrategy] stock is at its highest level since 2019,” Wolfe Research managing director Rob Ginsberg wrote in a note to clients seen by CNBC, warning the stock is overbought and recommending “tactically hedging” MicroStrategy gains by buying bitcoin directly.