You’d be hard pressed to find a high-profile investor that’s more of a Bitcoin bull than Michael Saylor. The co-founder of Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), formerly known as MicroStrategy, and best-selling author has repeatedly told people “never sell your Bitcoin” (1). Now, however, he seems to be retreating from his own advice.
After Strategy reported a $12.5 billion net loss (2) in the first quarter (the third consecutive quarter of losses), largely because of the tumble in bitcoin prices earlier this year, the company announced this week it would be offloading some of its crypto holdings.
“We’ll probably sell some Bitcoin to fund a dividend just to inoculate the market, just to send the message that we did it,” Saylor said in an earnings call with analysts. “The answer to how much we can sell responsibly is a function of where the Bitcoin price is, and to a lesser extent, how the equity capital markets react.”
Strategy’s CEO Phong Le further distanced the company from Saylor’s credo on the call, saying “We will sell bitcoin when it’s advantageous to the company.”
“We’re not going to sit back and just say, ‘We’ll never sell the bitcoin.’ We want to be net aggregators of bitcoin – increasing our total bitcoin, but more importantly, increasing our bitcoin per share because we think that is what is going to be most accretive long term for MSTR,” he said.
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A wild ride
Cryptocurrencies have never been an investment vehicle for the weak-stomached, but Bitcoin’s ride in recent months has been especially roller-coaster-like. Last November, it was trading (3) for over $106,000 per token. By February of this year, it had plunged to under $65,000. The ups and downs have continued until last month, when a quiet, sustained rise began to take hold. As of mid-day Thursday, Bitcoin was trading at just under $80,000.
Saylor, in announcing plans to sell, made it abundantly clear that his faith in the cryptocurrency hadn’t changed.
“Look — the company is fine, the Bitcoin is fine, the industry is fine, the world did not come to an end,” he said. “If you are a short seller and your thesis is the company has to sell equity in order to fund the dividends, I would like nothing better than to rip your wings off.”
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A big reversal
Despite the aggressive stance, Strategy’s decision comes just three months after Saylor refuted the idea that Strategy would ever sell any of its holdings. Speaking to CNBC (4) in February, he said “If bitcoin falls 90% for the next four years, we’ll refinance the debt. We’ll just roll it forward. … I expect we’ll be buying bitcoin every quarter forever.”
Strategy currently holds (5) 818,334 Bitcoin, worth $65.4 billion. It is the largest corporate owner of the cryptocurrency. Saylor has said that despite the fall in price, The company has two and a half years of cash reserves to make dividend and debt payments.
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X (1); Strategy (2); Google Finance (3); CNBC (4); Bitcoin Treasuries (5)
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