MicroStrategy Stock Doubles Since January as Michael Saylor Stays Bullish on Bitcoin

The software company’s co-founder is still long on Bitcoin—despite the company posting yet another quarterly loss.

By Mat Di Salvo

Michael Saylor, founder and chairman of MicroStrategy. Image: Swan Bitcoin/YouTube

Despite software giant MicroStrategy’s posting another loss yesterday, many long-term shareholders still have reason to be happy: the company’s stock has doubled so far this year.

The price of the Bitcoin-hoarding company’s stock is currently priced at $285.45, up 96.8% since the start of January. In the past five days, shares are up 11.83%.

Yesterday, MicroStrategy posted its eighth consecutive quarterly loss—this time its net loss was $249.7 million, or $21.93 a share, in the fourth quarter of 2022. 

The digital asset impairment loss is down to the Bitcoin the company holds: MicroStrategy has been slowly collecting the biggest digital asset by market cap since 2020—helping to trigger a bull run. 

Currently, the American company holds 132,500 BTC—worth over $3.1 billion today. MicroStrategy has paid an average of $30,137 per Bitcoin to accumulate its stash, according to yesterday’s filing. Since the company first bought Bitcoin in August 2020, its stock is up 113.8%

Bitcoin’s price is down 65.8% since its November 2021 all-time high of $69,044 per coin. Right now, the asset currently trades hands for $23,460. 

But MicroStrategy co-founder and chairman Michael Saylor doesn’t seem fazed. Today, the business executive and mastermind behind the company’s Bitcoin accumulation said in an interview with CNBC that the company would continue snapping up the digital asset. 

“Our strategy is to buy and hold Bitcoin, and the key for us is to be consistent, transparent and responsible in the pursuit of that strategy,” Saylor said. 

And MicroStrategy Chief Financial Officer Andrew Kangand said in the company’s SEC filing yesterday that the firm’s “conviction in acquiring, holding, and growing our bitcoin position for the long term remains unchanged.”

MicroStrategy started buying Bitcoin back in 2020 when it initially spent $250 million on the asset. 

Saylor claims the biggest and oldest cryptocurrency is a “safe haven” asset and “digital gold.”

In today’s interview he said the most “exciting thing” in the digital monetary world is Lightning. The Lightning Network is a second-layer network which allows people to make Bitcoin transactions—big or small—relatively quickly and cheaply via certain crypto wallets. 

MicroStrategy is currently working on an “enterprise Lightning solution,” added Saylor, which will allow companies to move money “at the speed of light.”