Michael Saylor, co-founder of MicroStrategy, was found to have sold a large amount of MicroStrategy stocks between January 2nd and 10th, earning over $20 million. This move seems to indicate his preparation to purchase more Bitcoin before the approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to Bloomberg data, Michael Saylor sold between 3,882 and 5,000 shares of MicroStrategy stocks during this period. This sale yielded him over $20 million and marked the first time he sold company stocks in the past 12 years. He intends to use the proceeds from these sales to invest in Bitcoin.
A spokesperson for MicroStrategy confirmed Saylor’s transactions but emphasized that these sales were disclosed in documents submitted to the SEC last year. They were part of Saylor’s personal stock selling plan and unrelated to the recent approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF.
According to SEC documents, Saylor will sell 315,000 shares of MicroStrategy stock between January 2nd and April 26th, 2024. He will sell a maximum of 5,000 shares per day during this period, as these shares are part of the stock options he obtained from the company in 2014.
Saylor previously stated that a Bitcoin spot ETF could be the most significant development on Wall Street in the past 30 years. He believes this new tool will bring significant demand for Bitcoin, especially with the Bitcoin halving event in April this year. Although he refused to speculate on how high the Bitcoin price would go, he anticipates a bullish market for Bitcoin this year.
MicroStrategy started investing in Bitcoin in 2020 and has spent approximately $5.89 billion to acquire around 189,150 bitcoins. The current value of these holdings has exceeded $8.09 billion, resulting in a profit of $2.2 billion.
Due to MicroStrategy’s substantial investment in Bitcoin, its stocks were previously considered an alternative to a Bitcoin spot ETF. However, with the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF, MicroStrategy stocks have experienced a decline of over 24% in the past five days, seemingly becoming the sacrifice after the ETF’s success.
Nevertheless, Michael Saylor remains confident. He emphasized that MicroStrategy is a self-owned company and can increase its holdings using its cash flow or “intelligent leverage.” Unlike an ETF, holding MicroStrategy stocks does not incur management fees.