Who is Michael Saylor, the MicroStrategy CEO who bet everything on Bitcoin (BTC)?

Michael Saylor, the historic CEO of the company MicroStrategy

Born on February 4, 1965 in Lincoln, United States, Michael J. Saylor showed a keen interest in technology and science at an early age. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with 2 specializations: one in aerospace, the other in information technology.

With his knowledge, Michael Saylor quickly moved into consulting. He helps his clients manage their technologies and optimize their software and systems. In 1989, he founded MicroStrategy: a company specializing in the development of software for businesses.. Its original specialty is data analysis and exploitation. One of its first major clients was McDonald's, with whom it signed a $10 million contract in 1992.

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MicroStrategy was part of the great tech and computing boom that took place in the late 1990s. The company became listed on the stock exchange in 1998, after raising $125 million in funds.Michael Saylor has anticipated the revolution that “Big Data” will represent and offers his clients ways to analyze large quantities of data.

Accusations and rebound after the dotcom bubble burst

In 2000, however, a scandal hit MicroStrategy. Michael Saylor's company was forced to review its accounting for the previous two years, following management errors. As a result, the company's stock fell by 62% in one day.The event is considered typical of the bursting of the dotcom “bubble” of the time.

That same year, the SEC charged Michael Saylor and other MicroStrategy executives with fraud. In December 2000, the latter agreed to pay $350,000 each, without, however, admitting guilt..

Microstrategy then enjoyed fifteen years of prosperity, with the launch of services that accompanied the progress of technologies. We owe him in particular the PRIME platform, built in partnership with FacebookBy the early 2010s, the company was firmly established as a service provider.

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Financial difficulties and the discovery of Bitcoin

But in 2014, MicroStrategy was forced to lay off 770 employees due to financial difficulties. At his own request, Michael Saylor reduces his salary from $875,000 per year to $1 per year. It was around this time that the company's CEO discovered Bitcoin. The asset's ability to retain its value outside of government influence piqued his interest, especially as he saw the difficulties his company was facing.

However, it was not until 2020 that MicroStrategy took the plunge. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, fears were indeed crystallizing around central banks, with doubts about their ability to maintain the rates of major fiat currencies. Faced with this, Michael Saylor made an unprecedented decision for a large company: he decided to invest in BTC as a reserve asset..

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So MicroStrategy made an initial purchase of $250 million. And in the next 2 years, Michael Saylor's company showed a certain voracity when it came to Bitcoin purchases. Over the period, the company will purchase nearly $4 billion worth of BTC, acquired at an average price of around $30,600..

Michael Saylor is betting everything on cryptocurrency

Michael Saylor's strategy is working so well that in 2022 he decided to step down as CEO of MicroStrategy, which he had held since 1998. He then says he wants to focus on MicroStrategy's Bitcoin strategy :

“As Executive Director, I will be better able to focus on our Bitcoin acquisition strategy and other initiatives related to promoting Bitcoin.»

In 2022, MicroStrategy CTO Phong Le, claimed the company was financially secure as long as BTC held above $21,000. Below that, the company is expected to start selling its bitcoins. The company sold 704 BTC on December 22, 2022, for $11.8 million.

Since then, it has continued to accumulate Bitcoin. As of the summer of 2024, MicroStrategy held 226,500 BTC. This corresponds to a substantial sum: 14 billion dollars at the time..

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MicroStrategy: A Company Whose Main Business Is Bitcoin?

Selling is not the intention of Michael Saylor, who is more vocal than ever regarding the benefits of Bitcoin. In early 2024, he sold his shares in the company he created, in order to buy more BTC.. Furthermore, he claimed a few months later that gold was going to be “eaten” by Bitcoin.

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As a result, MicroStrategy shares have become a way for institutional investors to indirectly position themselves on BTC. When spot Bitcoin ETFs did not yet exist, MicroStrategy's actions were indeed seen as a way to bet on the ecosystem through a company whose success is highly correlated with cryptocurrency.

In the space of 4 years, the company's capitalization has exploded. It reached a record of more than 200 billion dollars in April 2024. :

MicroStrategy's capitalization growth in recent years

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Michael Saylor, from a crazy bet to the advent of Bitcoin

Highly criticized during MicroStrategy's first Bitcoin purchase, Michael Saylor silenced those who doubted the merits of his project. The ambitious ex-CEO now devotes his professional life to crypto and has become one of the most vocal “Bitcoin maximalists”.

He also pioneered the integration of cryptocurrency into a company's reserves, a strategy that has since been imitated.

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Source: CNBC

A journalist at Cryptoast since 2017, I am passionate about the issues of decentralization, privacy and regulation. I specialize in traditional economics and finance, analyzing how news from this sector influences the cryptocurrency sector, offering a unique and informed perspective to Cryptoast readers.

Marine Debelloir

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