Bitcoin Losses Force Microstrategy CEO Saylor To Step Down, Stock Soars

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Last Updated on 5 August 2022 by CryptoTips.eu

Jeroen Kok

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Back in 2001, at the height of the DotCom bubble bursting, Fortune Magazine published a list of the top losers on Wall Street. Ranked at the top was none other than Michael Saylor, CEO of Microstrategy, who had a whopping $13.53 Billion loss.

MicroStrategy’s shares went from $3,300 to $4 (-99.99% decline) in a matter of months and the SEC even accused him of fraud.

But Saylor recovered and came back.

Advertentie.

Buy and hold

As from 2020, Saylor, still at the head of Microstrategy, turned the company into what can be best described as a buy-and-hold vehicle for Bitcoin, which rose from around $8,000 to an all time high of $69,000 last year.

During those pandemic years, Microstrategy bought about 130,000 bitcoins worth roughly $3 billion at current market prices. Problem for the company was that the average purchasing price was mostly higher than the actual price of Bitcoin, aka they bought high and are now facing a huge loss.

Saylor has therefore announced he is stepping down as chief executive in order to disallow the media to purely focus on the whopping $918 million of losses on it’s Bitcoin holdings in the second quarter of this year.

Microstrategy immediately announced that they would be appointing Phong Le, the current CFO and COO as its new CEO

As executive chairman I will be able to focus more on our bitcoin acquisition strategy and related bitcoin advocacy initiatives, while Phong will be empowered as CEO to manage overall corporate operations.

Michael Saylor said in a press release announcing the move

After the announcement, Microstrategy shares rose some 15% in two days.

monticello / Depositphotos.com