MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy is a business intelligence company that sells data analytics software and consulting services. Co-founded by Michael Saylor and Sanju Bansal in 1989, the company secured its first big client in 1991 when it “stumbled into a $10 million contract with McDonald's”. 

Saylor and Bansal promptly moved their 50 employees (now 2,000+) from Wilmington, Delaware to Tysons Corner, Virginia, where MicroStrategy has been headquartered ever since. The company went public in 1998 after generating $54M in revenue the previous fiscal year, and closed 2023 with $496M in annual revenue. 

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Saylor: Bitcoin “permabull”

Michael Saylor, who served as MicroStrategy’s CEO from 1989 to 2022 (when he was replaced by the company’s president, Phong Le), is one of the crypto community’s best-known “Bitcoin maximalists”: someone who believes in the superiority of Bitcoin over all other cryptocurrencies. 

Saylor is as optimistic about Bitcoin as one can be, earning him the permabull (“permanent bull”) moniker. "If Bitcoin is not going to zero then it's going to $1 million,” he said. “If it's a legitimate institutional asset then everybody is under-allocated to it.”

What is MicroStrategy?

MicroStrategy is a business intelligence company that sells data analytics software and consulting services. Co-founded by Michael Saylor and Sanju Bansal in 1989, the company secured its first big client in 1991 when it “stumbled into a $10 million contract with McDonald's”. Saylor and Bansal promptly moved their 50 employees (now 2,000+) from Wilmington, Delaware to Tysons Corner, Virginia, where MicroStrategy has been headquartered ever since. The company went public in 1998 after generating $54M in revenue the previous fiscal year, and closed 2023 with $496M in annual revenue. 

Saylor: Bitcoin “permabull”

Michael Saylor, who served as MicroStrategy’s CEO from 1989 to 2022 (when he was replaced by the company’s president, Phong Le), is one of the crypto community’s best-known “Bitcoin maximalists”: someone who believes in the superiority of Bitcoin over all other cryptocurrencies. Saylor is as optimistic about Bitcoin as one can be, earning him the permabull (“permanent bull”) moniker. "If Bitcoin is not going to zero then it's going to $1 million,” he said. “If it's a legitimate institutional asset then everybody is under-allocated to it.”

The first purchase

What many probably don’t know about Saylor is that he didn’t fully embrace Bitcoin until 2020, when he decided MicroStrategy needed to make a “transformational acquisition” in response to the decline of cash as a long-term store of value. “I thought ‘what if I could find a digital gold that was also a big tech monopoly?’” 

In August of that year, Saylor facilitated MicroStrategy’s first BTC purchase of 21,454 BTC (~$250M at the time). The rationale was that the BTC would serve as a “treasury reserve asset”, which is simply an asset held by an organization's treasury to mitigate risks and maintain financial stability.

Timeline

MicroStrategy quick facts

MicroStrategy holds the most BTC amongst publicly-listed companies.* Some other quick facts:

Total BTC holdings

214,246 BTC

BTC purchases

37+

Biggest purchase

$1.026B

First purchase

August 2020

Latest purchase

March 2024

* this is not counting BlackRock, whose iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has surpassed MicroStrategy’s holdings

Why does MicroStrategy keep buying Bitcoin? 

Alternative to fiat

Saylor says “money is dying” and BTC is “the king commodity”.

Scarcity

Limited supply makes BTC “a million times better” than gold.

Publicity

The purchases “enhance awareness of our brand” and helps “secure new customers”.

Early adoption

If BTC continues to trend upwards, early adoption will lead to high returns.

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