Former MicroStrategy CEO Remains Optimistic About Cryptocurrencies Three Years After Historic Bitcoin Purchase

Co-founder and former CEO of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor, remains optimistic about Bitcoin three years after his publicly traded business intelligence company decided to make its first Bitcoin purchase.

Saylor has also made significant asset price predictions, believing that its value could exceed one million dollars.

MicroStrategy Holds Nearly 153 Thousand Bitcoins

MicroStrategy made history on August 11, 2020, after becoming the first publicly traded company to purchase Bitcoin. The company initially hinted at its plans to invest in assets like Bitcoin or gold, rather than holding cash, as a way to hedge against inflation, with the company later deciding to buy Bitcoin worth $250 million and adopting it as its primary treasury reserve asset.

According to Saylor at the time, who was the CEO of MicroStrategy, the decision to invest in Bitcoin was made because the cryptocurrency served as a better hedge against inflation and had a higher return on investment compared to other assets.

That first purchase marked the beginning of several investments amid volatile cryptocurrency price movements, allowing the company to amass a significant stockpile. In June 2023, Saylor announced that the business intelligence giant purchased 12,333 Bitcoins for $347 million, making it one of the company’s largest purchases in a single quarter since Q2 2021.

As of July 31, 2023, MicroStrategy holds 152,800 Bitcoins, which the company stated were purchased for $4.53 billion at an average purchase price of $29,672 per Bitcoin. The business intelligence software company is the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin.

Meanwhile, in a SEC filing in December 2022, MicroStrategy disclosed that it sold 704 Bitcoins to generate tax benefits. The sale was the first for the company, and the action contradicted Saylor’s previous statement that MicroStrategy would never sell any Bitcoin.

Saylor Continues to Solidify Support

Saylor is known as one of the biggest proponents of Bitcoin and has continued to promote the asset as far superior to gold, calling it ‘digital gold’. However, he was not always in favor of Bitcoin, as he predicted the imminent demise of the asset in a 2013 tweet, stating it would meet the same fate as online gambling.

However, Saylor’s view on Bitcoin has since changed, and not only has the billionaire led several purchases at MicroStrategy while simultaneously making personal acquisitions, but he has also made significant price predictions for the number one cryptocurrency.

The Executive Chairman of MicroStrategy stated in May 2022 that the price of Bitcoin could reach millions, noting that it is the future of money. The following month, Saylor predicted that the price of Bitcoin would soar to one million dollars.

Later in September 2022, the CEO stated that the cryptocurrency could be valued at $500,000 in the next 10 years if it matches the market capitalization of gold. In context, the market capitalization of Bitcoin is $572.3 billion, while gold is currently valued at $12.8 trillion.

Additionally, Saylor appears dissatisfied with the current enforcement of the crypto sector by the U.S. SEC, stating that regulatory action could benefit Bitcoin by increasing the asset’s price and raising its market share dominance to 80 percent.

Saylor, who was CEO of MicroStrategy for over 30 years, left his position in August 2022, and Phong Le succeeded him.