Michael Saylor: The Architect of MicroStrategy’s Huge Bitcoin Bet
12/10/2024 22:23
Most companies were leery of Saylor’s strategy when he started amassing bitcoin back in 2020. Some are no longer skeptical.
Most companies were leery of Saylor’s strategy when he started amassing bitcoin back in 2020. Some are no longer skeptical.
Dec 10, 2024, 2:33 p.m. UTC
Michael Saylor's decades-old software development firm MicroStrategy blazed the path for corporate bitcoin purchases beginning in 2020. Through massive securities sales, he's managed to fund the purchase of billions of dollars worth of bitcoin for his company. Tesla and Block dabbled in the strategy in years past. After the ugly crypto winter put a damper on that, in 2024, other publicly traded companies like Semler Scientific copied the idea. Is it a fad like adding "Blockchain" to corporate names in the 2010s to juice stock returns, or is hoarding bitcoin on balance sheets (including the U.S. government's) something enduring? Saylor has bought the original crypto through thick and thin, so the test will be whether the trend persists beyond the current red-hot moment following Donald Trump's election. But there's no denying Saylor's laser eyes sparked something.
This profile is part of CoinDesk's Most Influential 2024 package. For all of this year's nominees, click here [ADD LINK BEFORE PUBLISHING].
Nick Baker
Nick Baker is CoinDesk's deputy editor-in-chief. He won a Loeb Award for editing CoinDesk's coverage of FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried, including Ian Allison's scoop that caused SBF's empire to collapse. Before joining in 2022, he worked at Bloomberg News for 16 years as a reporter, editor and manager. Previously, he was a reporter at Dow Jones Newswires, wrote for The Wall Street Journal and earned a journalism degree from Ohio University. He owns more than $1,000 of BTC and SOL.
