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Michael Saylor Selling $216 Million of Microstrategy’s Shares, Plans to Buy More Bitcoin

Microstrategy’s executive chairman, Michael Saylor, is selling $216 million of his company’s shares, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The pro-bitcoin executive intends to use some of the proceeds to acquire additional bitcoin for his personal holdings.
Michael Saylor Plans to Buy More Bitcoin for Himself

Microstrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR)’s executive chairman, Michael Saylor, plans to sell 315,000 shares of his company’s common stock worth $216 million, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Jan. 2.

Microstrategy previously disclosed Saylor’s plan to sell up to 400,000 shares of company stock over four months. In its November 10-Q filing with the SEC, the Nasdaq-listed firm explained that the pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plan, triggered by a stock option that expires on April 30, 2024, involves daily sales of 5,000 shares contingent on a minimum price condition.

During Microstrategy’s Q3 2023 earnings call on Nov. 2, 2023, Saylor explained that he plans to use some of the proceeds to buy more bitcoin for his personal account.

“I was granted a stock option in 2014 with respect to 400,000 shares, which is going to expire next April if I don’t exercise it by then,” the executive chairman began. “For almost a decade now at my request, the company has only paid me a $1 salary and I’ve chosen not to be eligible for any cash bonuses.” Saylor continued:

Exercising this option will allow me to address some financial obligations as well as to acquire additional bitcoin for my personal account.

While Saylor has not disclosed how much bitcoin he owns recently, he said in October 2020 that he personally owns 17,732 BTC. Meanwhile, his software intelligence firm publicly reported holdings of 189,150 bitcoin as of December 2023.

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MicroStrategy Exec Defends BTC Despite Crash

MicroStrategy, the software giant that began investing in bitcoin in August 2020 and has since become one of the cryptocurrency’s largest institutional backers, lost more than $1 billion worth of BTC after the recent crash.

MicroStrategy still thinks BTC is the bomb

Bitcoin and various other digital currencies have not been doing well lately. In fact, they are in very bad positions. BTC, for example, hit a new all-time high of roughly $68,000 per unit in November of last year. Today, it is trading at just over $20,000 per unit, meaning virtually all of the gains the coin has made over the last five years are gone. The coin is down around 70%, while assets like Ethereum are even lower, trading around 75% below their all-time highs.

Despite the gloomy news, Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, continues to defend BTC, stating in a recent series of tweets and social media posts that it is the best thing for the decentralized finance (defi) space.

On Twitter, Saylor wrote the following:

The strong ethical, economic, and technical foundation for defi is #bitcoin. The next generation of defi will be built using the #Lightning protocol and the #BTC token.

He was also quick to comment on the recent behavior of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) around the regulation of cryptocurrencies. He says:

Today @GaryGensler discussed #crypto regulation with @WSJ. Aside from #bitcoin, most cryptocurrencies (especially POS networks) represent unregistered securities without the full and fair disclosures necessary to protect investors.

There is a dark cloud hanging over MicroStrategy as it recently took out a huge loan to buy even more units of bitcoin. This was before the recent bloodbath that started to take place, and it was claimed that if Bitcoin dropped to $21,000 or below, a margin call would be required. Now that the asset is below that threshold, people are wondering if that call will come through.

Saylor, however, is working to reassure merchants that the company is in a good place and no calls have yet been made. He stated:

As long as the Silvergate loan remains secured with an LTV of less than 50%, there will be no margin call. We manage accordingly.

MicroStrategy, before its bitcoin purchases, was known for producing software, though now the company has become synonymous with the world’s number one digital currency by market value. The company started trading BTC about two years ago and hasn’t stopped since.

At one point, the company had over $5 billion in BTC funding, though that number has likely dropped significantly with the recent bear market in play. The company, however, has inspired many other institutions, such as Square, to take BTC seriously and start investing.

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Michael Saylor Interviews Jack Dorsey on Bitcoin Principles, MicroStrategy Buys Another 660 BTC

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor recently held a live talk with Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block Inc., in which the two executives discussed the principles behind Bitcoin and what their prospects are for the near future.

The session was part of an annual conference, World 2022, which focuses on how organizations can leverage MicroStrategy’s business intelligence services for business analysis. The discussion also delved deeper into the fundamental principles behind Bitcoin and how it helped spawn an entirely new financial system that goes against the centralized principles of what currently exists.

“Many of us probably started Bitcoin out of curiosity, and that has led us further and further down the road [about] how the world works and what are some of the best solutions to the problems we all face and we are all seeing. .” Dorsey shared.

According to Dorsey, he is “extremely passionate” about Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency that runs alongside the Internet, which was founded on the back of the open source movement in the early 1990s.

“There’s a way to build for the Internet, build for the world, that’s credible, that’s open, that includes anyone who wants to participate. We don’t normally see that in the corporate world that we tend to live in.” said the CEO of Block Inc.

Dorsey believes Bitcoin opens up the possibility of an open and inclusive financial system designed to be top-down, as opposed to the current financial sphere of influence, whether it is multiple governments running central banks or what he calls “corporate”. financial systems”.

Dorsey continued to investigate how this fundamental difference that Bitcoin brings to the fore enacts ways to “build for the world” that invites all its participants to actively contribute to its growth and development.

“It gave me a lot of lessons and reminders of why the Internet is so important and what we can do to make sure that people who come across this technology trust it. That if they have an idea that will make it better, make it more accessible, make it more secure and protect it even more, you can contribute.” Dorsey shared.

The interview and conference coincide with MicroStrategy’s most recent purchase of 660 Bitcoins for approximately $25 million, with the company further boosting its balance sheet with $3.87 billion in BTC, acquired at an average price of $30,200. per unit. This, in particular, despite the downward trend in the company’s own common stock, $MSTR. The business intelligence firm’s enterprise software business has already benefited from its control over Bitcoin, with around $750 million made in price margins since it began integrating Bitcoin onto its balance sheet.