Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor said he will hold his company’s Bitcoin (BTC) for 100 years, and has no intention of selling it.
On Aug. 11, the business intelligence firm announced it had purchased 21,454 BTC for $250 million. This investment is now worth more than $278 million, representing an 11% increase in two months, and has purchased more Bitcoin since.
In a new interview with Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal, Saylor said the decision to invest $250 million was informed by a discussion between its board of directors and the firm’s investors, auditor and executives. Saylor explained:
“This is not a speculation, nor a hedge. It is a deliberate corporate strategy to adopt the Bitcoin Standard.”
Microstrategy decided to restructure its treasury in response to recent global economic uncertainty, looking to explore assets suited to providing a long-term store of value.
But after considering a variety of options with a 100-year outlook, Saylor decided Bitcoin was the only option. Tax and fees kill almost all other assets, he concluded, and those that aren’t killed are instead crippled because they are controlled by a CEO, government or country.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, is evolving, and over time it gets harder, stronger and faster, Saylor concluded, describing BTC as a “hive of cybernetic hornets protected by a wall of encrypted energy.”
When looking at Ethereum as an alternative to Bitcoin, he told Pal it didn’t compare, as they are “still chasing after functionality.” He explained that “it still has to be proven,” adding:
“There are centralized competitors to it and they’re [Ethereum] not done with the functional architecture yet.”
The fact that Bitcoin is so big, compared with all other cryptocurrencies, is “the market screaming to you there is a winner, [...] it’s eating the world.”
Saylor asserted Bitcoin is the world’s best collateral and doesn’t even compare to gold or any other commodities. He told Pal that if you hold $100 million in cash over 100 years, you will lose 99% of it, and if held in gold, you will still lose 85% at best.
Saylor described Bitcoin as performing similar monetary utilities as gold, only better and without the fear of dilution — likening BTC to gold as what steel is to bricks:
“Bitcoin, if it’s not a hundred times better than gold, it is a million times better than gold, and there is nothing close to it.”
With Bitcoin, Saylor argued, “anybody can inspect the fact that I own the Bitcoin in one second,” and yet it can be “sent anywhere in the world for $5.” He added that he could liquidate $100 million BTC on “a Saturday afternoon.”
Saylor told Pal that many people believe he has weak hands, saying “Ya, Saylor’s going to buy it and he’s going to dump it. He’s going to buy it and then buy another company with it. He’s going to buy it until he gets this profit and do whatever.” But in reality, he isn’t going to sell it, explaining that he is in it for the long haul:
“They don’t understand the mindset of long. I’m buying it for the dude that’s going to work for the dude that’s going to get hired by the guy who takes over my job in 100 years.”
Saylor finished the two-hour-long interview by noting that his executives are closely watching developers in the crypto space:
“My whole board is listening to what you guys are saying.”