Tag: Michael Saylor

Michael Saylor Believes Bitcoin is the Solution to the Lebanon’s Financial Crisis

by Blockchain News

Michael J. Saylor, Co-founder of Microstrategy has made claims that he believes the use of Bitcoin (BTC) is the solution to the financial crisis that is being experienced in Lebanon as the country’s currency has lost 96% of its value against the U.S. Dollar (USD).

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Saylor gave the opinion on Twitter as he claimed that the commercial banks had failed the country. Lebanon, a country long famed for its stable and investment-friendly financial system, has slid into anarchy as hyperinflation grips the country and banks impose hefty cuts on dollar withdrawals.

The use of digital assets became a thing when Lebanon was experiencing a financial crisis in 2019, a decentralized and seamless digital currency came into play outside the control of bankers and the government according to news reports at the time.

Lebanon presently has 6 bitcoin ATMs. There is one in Aamchit and five in Beirut but those who were interviewed in the report claim the best way to access bitcoin is either by earning it through work/mining or alternatively by purchasing it with the Tether stablecoin.

The Use of Bitcoin as a Tool to Fight Inflation

Satoshi Nakamoto invented the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), in 2008. Bitcoin has since transformed in its usage and monetary forms, money issuance standard, and money mobility thanks to its underlying blockchain technology

Michael Saylor has previously stated that using bitcoin to fight inflation is a viable option. Saylor made a statement last year that corporate investors can use bitcoin to fight inflation. 

He stated that “in order to maintain shareholder value, conventional treasury practices are no longer effective. To control the dilution that monetary inflation has on their balance sheet, corporations need new management strategies. Bitcoin is the ideal solution”.

According to a Paxful survey, Argentina views Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as the most effective hedge against inflation. The majority of respondents, according to the study, have used cryptocurrencies to shield themselves from rising inflation, and about 70% of respondents believe that investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is extremely safe.

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MicroStrategy is Hiring a Bitcoin Developer to Design Enterprise Solutions

by Blockchain News

American Nasdaq-listed business intelligence firm, MicroStrategy Incorporated has put out a call in search of a Bitcoin Lightning Software Engineer. 

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The firm is looking for a veteran who will help it in designing enterprise-grade solutions that can help startups looking to integrate Bitcoin solutions with security through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform.

 

“As a Bitcoin Lightning Software Engineer at MicroStrategy, you will build a Lightning Network-based SaaS platform, providing enterprises with innovative solutions to cyber-security challenges and enabling new eCommerce use-cases,” MicroStrategy detailed in its job posting.

 

MicroStrategy has accumulated more than 130,000 units of Bitcoin since it declared Bitcoin as its Treasury Reserve Asset (TRA) back in 2020. The company now occupies a very viable position in the crypto ecosystem, helping other institutional grade investors with education and motivation to adopt the digital currencies also.

 

With the new Bitcoin developer that is being projected, MicroStrategy will also seek to establish a reference point by creating a Decentralized Finance (DeFi) focused solution. With the focus to use the Lightning Network, a layer-2 solution built on the Bitcoin network, MicroStrategy is driving a solution that is proven to fasttrack retail payments at a more secure, faster, and cheaper rate.

 

The new engineer will also be tasked with contributing to open source code and representing the firm with top-rated Web3.0 projects.

 

MicroStrategy has yet again, set the pace amongst top institutional investors with a vested interest in digital currencies. With Michael Saylor setting the pace for the company’s Bitcoin embrace, Phong Le is billed to walk in the veteran’s footsteps and establish the firm as the premier digital currency at the top echelon of firms bolstering the general adoption of Bitcoin.

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Bitcoin Is ‘100 Times Better Than Gold,’ Says Michael Saylor

by Blockchain News

Despite the current market pullback, MicroStrategy co-founder and chairman Michael Saylor remains bullish.

The crypto bull not only thinks that Bitcoin will regain its past glory but also sees the flagship cryptocurrency has a lot of potential to grow beyond its current trading level.

Saylor believes that Bitcoin is 100x better than gold and sees it as the next big ‘store of value asset’. The executive said that during the Money Festival hosted by MarketWatch on Wednesday, but the event was first reported on Saturday, September 24. “I think that the next logical stop for Bitcoin is to replace gold as a non-sovereign store of value asset, and gold is a $10 trillion asset as we speak. Bitcoin is digital gold, it’s 100x better than gold,” Saylor said.

During the festival’s Best New Ideas segment, Saylor did not hold back when he predicted the cryptocurrency’s price may reach $500,000 within the next decade. “You can’t inflate it. The half-life of money in Bitcoin is forever. You can move it on billions of computers at the speed of light. So, if Bitcoin goes to the value of gold, it’s going to $500,000 a coin, and I think that happens this decade,” the executive stated.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $$18,876.55, down 0.55% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Putting into consideration that Bitcoin is trading at this level now, $500,000 projected by Saylor implies that the cryptocurrency has a potential upside of over 2,500%.

Saylor is putting his money where his mouth is. He told MarketWatch that he personally owns 17,732 Bitcoins that he’s had for “about two years” when he bought them at around $9,500 per coin.

Bitcoin Is Separate from Cryptocurrency

Early this year, Fidelity Investment, a Boston-based investment management firm, issued a report that confirmed Saylor’s sentiments. In February, the investment manager acknowledged that although the world is flooded with cash and various cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is special because it has the potential for significant price gains.

Fidelity said Bitcoin is a scarce “monetary good,” superior in many ways to other cryptocurrencies, gold, and even government-issued money like the dollar. The investment manager predicted Bitcoin to be a lot higher in the next five to 10 years.

In early August, Saylor stepped down as MicroStrategy CEO. He is now the executive chairman of the software firm, focusing solely on Bitcoin.

MicroStrategy, a publicly traded software company, is the single largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, with over 129,000 BTC on its balance sheet. Just one month after its popular CEO Michael Saylor stepped down, the company bought 301 Bitcoins for about $6 million, and now holds almost 130,000 Bitcoins in its coffers.

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Despite Market Crash, MicroStrategy Buys 301 Bitcoins Worth $6 Million

by Blockchain News

MicroStrategy has done it again. The Virginia-based business software company has bought additional 301 Bitcoins worth around $6 million to its balance sheet.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, MicroStrategy purchased 301 Bitcoins (BTC) between August 2 and September 19 for about $6 million.

The filing stated that the software firm that was co-founded by entrepreneur and Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor purchased the world’s largest cryptocurrency at an average price of $19,851 per coin. This is the company’s first purchase since June, when it bought 480 Bitcoins worth around $10 million during that time.

MicroStrategy, best known as the largest corporate buyer of Bitcoin, now has almost 130,000 Bitcoins, acquiring them for a total price of $3.98 billion, according to an 8-K filing with the SEC.

Prior to the latest purchase, the firm revealed on September 15 its plans to sell up to $500 million in class A common stock and to use the proceeds to buy more Bitcoins.

In August, Saylor stepped down as CEO of the company and assumed a new role as executive chairman to focus his efforts more on Bitcoin.

How Does MicroStrategy Make Money from Bitcoin?

MicroStrategy is known for owning more Bitcoin than any other publicly-traded company. As of June 14, the Virginia-based business intelligence firm held 129,218 Bitcoins, more than two-and-a-half times as much as Tesla, the next largest Bitcoin owner.

The founder of MicroStrategy believes deeply in the promise of the flagship cryptocurrency that the firm took out a $205 million loan from Silvergate Bank to buy $190 million worth of Bitcoin in April. But since then, the crypto market, which was already plunging, has gone into free fall.

MicroStrategy purchased its first 21,454 Bitcoins for $250 million in August 2020, citing worries the US dollar would lose value due to the Covid-19 pandemic, government stimulus spending, and political uncertainty around the globe.

Everyone gets into the crypto landscape to make money, but not all end up doing that. Many people either give up along the way or lose money because they do not properly understand how to make money with cryptocurrency.

But MicroStrategy understands the principles of making money by investing in Bitcoins. Despite the market plunge, MicroStrategy has continued investing in the largest cryptocurrency. In January, MicroStrategy CEO Phong Le said the company’s strategy with Bitcoin has been to buy and hold for long-term purposes (for at least ten years and more). The company has been using excess cash flows or finding other ways to raise money to continue to put it into Bitcoin.

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Michael Saylor Supports Bitcoin as a Valuable Asset in the Digital Space

by Blockchain News

Michael Saylor the CEO of MicroStrategy Inc. stated that Bitcoin (BTC) is a better tool for trade compared to the use of other physical instruments.

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He highlighted the challenges that come with physical commodities like gold, stocks, and real estate properties. 

 

According to reports from the Australian Crypto Convention. Saylor highlighted the negative experiences that come with owning a physical property such as high increments in taxes associated with their usage, unlike bitcoin. He is of the opinion that the use of bitcoin will reduce the high taxes rate for consumers. Bitcoin has been so secured for so many years now and is always a secured cryptocurrency 

He talked about how physical commodities can’t be moved beyond boundaries adding; “If you have a property in Africa, no one’s gonna want to rent it from you if they live in London. But if you have a billion dollars of Bitcoin, you can loan it or rent it to anybody in the world.”

Saylor highlighted that bitcoin can be carried from place to place, even the smallest piece of it, and can be passed down to children up to the fourth generation going to about 250 years. He also made it known that the only product that can’t be taxed is bitcoin.

Bitcoin’s Potentials in the Digital Economy

In a related interview, Saylor said he was clueless about Bitcoin’s potential until 2020 and wasn’t even thinking of investing in it however this view changed when he saw the persuasive wealth of bitcoin to gold. 

Bitcoin is better than gold due to analysis pointed out by his firm, considering government debts, stock derivatives, and precious metals.

“The return of gold is nothing compared to crypto and in the digital world bitcoin is that currency,” says Michael Saylor.

According to survey results made available by Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd., a sizable portion of US citizens may be planning to invest around 10% of the most recent batch of direct stimulus checks on Bitcoin and stocks.

Many who consider Saylor as a persuasive innovator may be moved to inject funds into Bitcoin per his prompting.

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Ethereum’s Vitalik Takes a Jab at Michael Saylor, Calls Him a “Total Clown”

by Blockchain News

The question of the security status of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) seems to be pitching many notable figures in the digital currency ecosystem against one another.

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Known as one of the prominent figures in the crypto space, Michael Saylor seems to have unnerved Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, with his position that “Ethereum is inherently unethical because its existence violates securities laws which have their basis in the 10 commandments.”

Michael Saylor leads his company, MicroStrategy Incorporated, on a mission to make Bitcoin the primary reserve currency. Thus far, the company has accumulated over 120,000 BTC units, and Saylor is always gushing about how Bitcoin is the revolutionary money for the new world order.

Personalities like Michael Saylor are called Bitcoin Maximalists, believing in no other digital currency and their inherent potential. Taking his pessimism about Ethereum seems to fall on the bad side of Vitalik, who posed a question in a counter tweet;

“Why do maximalists keep picking heroes that turn out to be total clowns?” 

The series of tweets have brought many stakeholders in the digital currency ecosystem to wade in, expressing their thoughts on the issue. While many believe Michael Saylor is wrong for talking down on Ethereum as a security, a whole lot of others believe in reality, the issuance of Ethereum and the role of the Ethereum Foundation do indeed appear to be a security.

The question of what digital currency constitutes a security is one that will always remain vague in the US, at least, until there is some sort of clarity from the appropriate authorities.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently in court after suing Ripple Labs for selling XRP coins as securities. The confusion this lack of definition has fueled the stunted growth of the industry, and stakeholders will feel more relieved should the law regarding this be clearly spelt out.

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‘It’s Nothing Without its Energy Consumption’, Says Peter Brandt against BTC

by Blockchain News

Peter Brandt, one of the most vocal critics of Bitcoin (BTC), has taken a jab at the digital currency again, dwelling on the coin’s energy correlation with its value this time.

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Talking throughTwitter, Brandt said Bitcoin does not provide any economic function, ironically highlighting that the most significant view of Bitcoin is when it is seen as enormous energy consumption.

The comment about Bitcoin in itself is a response to a July 19 tweet from Michael Saylor, the co-founder and CEO of MicroStrategy Incorporated, a firm that has accumulated over 140,000 Bitcoin units. In his characteristic manner, Saylor had rained his accolades on Bitcoin as “a digital commodity because it has no issuer and is secured by energy.”

In the criticizing comment, Peter Brandt noted that Bitcoin is “Secured by energy only in the sense that it is useless without an exorbitant use of energy — and then without providing economic function. It is a huge myth that somehow $BTC is anything but energy consumption.”

In what later turned out to be an education session on Twitter, Saylor took time to school Brandt on Bitcoin’s inherent ‘economic function’.

According to Saylor, “All commodities require energy. Since #bitcoin is a commodity, it can serve as global digital money. The economic function is to provide property rights to 8 billion people as well as a global settlement network that has already cleared $17 trillion dollars so far this year.”

He buttressed his points by Posting the chart below:

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It is not uncommon to find critics using the energy utilization of Bitcoin and other Proof-of-Work digital assets to argue for an investor boycott or a ban. EU regulators surmounted such pressure and refused to ban PoW in the newly passed Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) bill.

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MicroStrategy Buys Additional $10M Worth of Bitcoin

by Blockchain News

Not minding the losses accrued thus far, MicroStrategy Incorporated has continued to buy the dip, the latest of which is 480 units of Bitcoin (BTC) worth approximately $10 million.

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According to a Form 8-K filing lodged with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), MicroStrategy said it “acquired approximately 480 bitcoins for approximately $10.0 million in cash, at an average price of approximately $20,817 per bitcoin, inclusive of fees and expenses.”

The company, led by Bitcoin bull, Michael Saylor said as “of June 28, 2022, MicroStrategy, together with its subsidiaries, held an aggregate of approximately 129,699 bitcoins, which were acquired at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $3.98 billion and an average purchase price of approximately $30,664 per bitcoin, inclusive of fees and expenses.”

 

MicroStrategy is not a stranger to betting on Bitcoin especially when prices are generally low. With a multi-year hold in view, the business intelligence, software, and cloud company is hoping it will make a tremendous cashout with an inevitable increase in price when its demand will outshine supply over the next decade.

 

The publicly-traded company, whose board approved Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset does not just believe BTC is a viable alternative to fiat notes, it has been making targeted and ambitious purchases to prove this point. Prior to this time, the firm secured over $1 billion in senior convertible debt all of which were used in acquiring Bitcoin.

 

Additionally, the firm recently took a $205 million Bitcoin-collateralized loan, and the proceeds from this credit facility were injected into the premier nascent asset class.

 

MicroStrategy is unrelenting in believing in the potential of Bitcoin as sound money, and despite its apparent loss of close to $10,000 per BTC on its total holdings, the firm is optimistic that the technological superiority of Bitcoin will pave way for a bullish run in the near term.

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Bitcoin’s Short-Term Volatility Is Irrelevant Once Investors Understand Its Fundamentals, Says MicroStrategy CEO

by Blockchain News

As the recent crypto sell-off continues to elicit mixed reactions and concerns, Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy CEO, has told investors that they should not be discouraged by Bitcoin’s short-term volatility.

For investors who see cryptos as a short-term investment and a fast track to becoming richer, their analysis is wrong. In an interview with ‘The Block’ last week after appearing at CoinMarketCap’s The Capital virtual conference, the MicroStrategy CEO said that investors should understand Bitcoin as a long-term investment.

The majority of investors fail to make money because they don’t understand Bitcoin. Saylor said that Bitcoin’s near-term volatility is largely irrelevant once investors understand the fundamentals of the flagship cryptocurrency.

While Saylor suggested that people who have spent at least $100 on Bitcoin can speak about the crypto, he allowed that but indicated that such traders probably “shouldn’t have anything to say about it.”

According to the MicroStrategy CEO: “Bitcoin is the most certain thing in a very uncertain world, it’s more certain than the other 19,000 cryptocurrencies, it’s more certain than any stock, it’s more certain than owning property anywhere in the world.”

Bitcoin is normally considered as almost three times more volatile than traditional investments (like stocks) in the short term. But Saylor thinks that the crypto volatility presents both risk and opportunity for financial investments.

Most small investors fail to reap opportunities in Bitcoin trading because their trade is often based on short-term volatility. They are too pessimistic about downtrends, which eventually affects their decision-making.

The MicroStrategy CEO said that investors should keep a long-time horizon with respect to investing in Bitcoin.

The executive advised investors that they should not feel down that Bitcoin prices are well off their all-time highs.

Seasonal investors don’t take the risk of trading Bitcoin in the short term to increase their gains because their gains will be large enough to satisfy them if they wait long enough.

“My time horizon is a decade or more,” Saylor said in February during an interview with Yahoo Finance Live.

The executive has been putting his money where his mouth is on Bitcoin.

MicroStrategy bought 660 Bitcoins for about $25 million between December 2021 and January 2022 at an average price of $37,865 per coin.

Currently, the firm holds 125,051 Bitcoins valued at about $4.8 billion, which reflects Saylor’s focus on diversifying the software firm into a promising technology.

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MicroStrategy Counting $162m Loss on BTC Holdings as Price Volatility Continues

by Blockchain News

Nasdaq-listed business intelligence and software firm MicroStrategy Incorporated is sitting on a massive loss concerning its Bitcoin (BTC), considering the bearish sentiments engulfing the market at the moment.

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The company comes off as one of the most prominent Wall Street firms that pioneered shoring up its balance with Bitcoin, a move it made first around August 2020.

Since that time to date, MicroStrategy has accumulated a total of 129,218 Bitcoin units following its latest purchase of 4,167 Bitcoins back in early April for approximately $190.5 million. The cumulative digital currencies the firm owns were acquired at an average price of $30,700. With the current price – $29,472.45 – of the premier digital currency, the value of the firm’s Bitcoin holdings is pegged at $3.808 billion at the time of writing.

The company’s purchase price of the coins is approximately $3.97 billion, leaving the paper losses at about $162 million. MicroStrategy has received a number of backlash regarding this strategy to grow its profitability, as critics say the digital currency’s volatility negates whatever technological advancement is backing it.

MicroStrategy investors are also responding in tandem with the company’s Bitcoin profitability outlook as the shares have dropped a significant portion of their value in the year-to-date period.

Yet, the Founder and CEO of MicroStrategy (MSTR) Michael Saylor previously clarified on his Twitter about the company’s obligation and its Bitocin-backed loans, saying that “if the price of #BTC falls below $3,562 the company could post some other collateral.” The market believes Saylor would not sell Bitcoin amid the recent plunge.

A similar fate is befalling most Bitcoin-linked firms, especially those trading on public bourses, as the bearish outlook of the crypto-ecosystem fueled little demand that affected these firms’ operations. MicroStrategy is an investor with so much trust and a corresponding stake in Bitcoin, having borrowed the sum of $205 million from Silvergate Bank, with which it used to acquire more BTC units back in March.

The firm’s losses on Bitcoin are tapering with the volatility. From previous affirmations from Michael Saylor, there are strategies to mitigate the losses if it plunges below certain threshold levels.

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Bitcoin (BTC) $ 27,224.29 1.67%
Ethereum (ETH) $ 1,908.29 2.48%
Litecoin (LTC) $ 95.26 1.71%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 114.75 1.14%