Crypto Academy

How Did Michael Saylor Become An Influential Person In Crypto?

Dren.H

Cryptocurrencies are largely affected by government decisions, businesses, and even individuals. There have been numerous cases where an individual’s acts had an effect on the price of a certain cryptocurrency. Tesla’s Elon Musk and Dogecoin might be an example that you might be aware of. However, in this article, we are going to focus on another institutional investor whose actions have affected the world’s leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. We will look at Michael Saylor and his multibillion-dollar company, MicroStrategy. Saylor’s actions in the cryptocurrency market, as well as his social media activity, have largely influenced the market and Bitcoin in particular. 

Who is Michael Saylor?

Michael Saylor is a successful American entrepreneur. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with majors in aeronautics and astronautics; and science, technology, and society. Initially, he wanted to become a pilot since he grew up in an environment influenced by the American Air Force. However, he was not allowed to do so due to health constraints. With expertise in science and technology, Saylor was involved in several companies in computer simulation modeling. 

After a few years of work, he used his money and founded MicroStrategy with some of his friends. MicroStrategy was a huge success and is considered one of the greatest business intelligence companies today.

Nevertheless, Michael Saylor also had troubles on the road to becoming who he is today. For instance, in March of 2000, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Saylor of false reporting in the financial sector of MicroStrategy. This cost Saylor $350,000 in penalties and $8.3 million in personal disgorgement. This also caused the stock of MicroStrategy to decline by $6 billion.

Today, Michael Saylor is one of the biggest influencers in the cryptocurrency market. With MicroStrategy being one of the biggest companies to use Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. According to Forbes, Michael Saylor’s net worth as of August 2021 is around $2.5 billion.

MicroStrategy

Let’s take a deeper look at MicroStrategy and what they do. They provide business intelligence (BI), cloud-based services, mobile software, and much more. The first big client of MicroStrategy was McDonald’s. This endorsement was worth $10 million and was the stepping stone of MicroStrategy’s success in the following years. Surely, the SEC charges did not help MicroStrategy at all and aggravated the company’s finances, but they managed to slowly recover in the following years.

With the many partnerships that MicroStrategy has had throughout the years, and with its stock value increasing in recent times, today it is a multibillion-dollar company. It is worth around $7 billion as of August 2021, according to Macrotrends.

It was August of 2020 when MicroStrategy showed its interest in cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin. It was Michael Saylor himself who chose this strategy of purchasing BTC. 

Michael Saylor and Bitcoin

As successful and strategic as Michael Saylor has been throughout his life, it was his interest in Bitcoin that made him respected and potent in the crypto community. Initially, he chose to invest $250 million in Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset because many experts view BTC as digital gold, only that the latter does the job of gold much better.

How Did Michael Saylor Become An Influential Person In Crypto?
Michael Saylor at the Bitcoin Conference in Miami. Source: Bloomberg.

That $250 million got him 21,454 BTC. But Saylor did not stop here. He continued to purchase BTC in the following months. For instance, in February of 2021, he went on to buy 19,452 BTC for $1.02 billion. This was when BTC was starting to increase massively during the first quarter of this year. By then, he had 90,531 BTC under MicroStrategy’s name. This caused MicroStrategy’s stock value to increase as well. Today, MicroStrategy owns more than 100,000 BTC, which is worth billions of dollars since BTC has been increasing over the months. If Bitcoin reaches $100,000 as it is projected, MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin value can be worth at least $10 billion.

Related: Here is Why Bitcoin Price Will Hit $100,000 in 2021

His trading activities are not the only factor that may have caused an increase in the price of BTC, even if he is considered a whale investor. Similar to Elon Musk, Michael Saylor was active in his Twitter account, promoting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as the future of payments. In an exchange of tweets with Elon Musk, Saylor captivated many other investors and crypto enthusiasts. In the tweet below you can see Michael Saylor and Elon Musk Twitter activity regarding BTC.

This ultimately caused the price of BTC to increase in the following months, among other price factors such as the BTC halving in 2020.

But what we have not mentioned is that Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy has a debt of $2.2 billion, which they pay back with a 1.5% interest. However, Saylor is optimistic that BTC’s volatility, even though it may have dips every now and then, can make Bitcoin one of the most profitable investments in the future.

In an interview with CNBC, Saylor said, “If you borrow billions of dollars at 1% interest and invest it in the next Big Tech digital network that you thought was going to be the dominant Amazon or Google or Facebook of money, why wouldn’t you? I mean, if I could borrow $1 billion and buy Facebook a decade ago for 1% interest, I think I would’ve done quite well.” 

However, Saylor’s large interest in Bitcoin received a lot of criticism from the media and other analysts. The main implication of these critiques was that Saylor was not giving attention to MicroStrategy enough in the same way as he is giving to BTC. However, Saylor was not phased by critics at all and even liked the fact that he and MicroStrategy are gaining more media coverage.

 “I think probably it would cost us $100 million a year to buy the kind of publicity that we now get for free,” said an unbothered Michael Saylor according to Washingtonian. 

Clearly, he is enjoying the fame that his BTC purchases brought him, and as suggested, his BTC investments increased the value of MicroStrategy to become one of the biggest business intelligence companies in the world.

Over the months, Saylor continued with his Bitcoin advocacy in his Twitter account. Here is a look at what Saylor had to say.

Saylor’s poetic Bitcoin description. This tweet is actually marked as pinned by Saylor.

Saylor’s description of BTC as digital gold. And below there is another tweet from Michael Saylor on Bitcoin, implying that it is the best currency to exist.

What Does Michael Saylor Think of Other Cryptocurrencies?

It is clear that Michael Saylor’s favorite cryptocurrency is Bitcoin. However, Michael Saylor has acknowledged the fact that also other cryptocurrencies can increase together with Bitcoin. He understands that each cryptocurrency has a different utility, but he has stuck with BTC because of its role as digital gold and treasury reserve asset. 

For instance, he has also recognized Ethereum as a potentially “booming” cryptocurrency because of its potential to replace traditional financial services.

“You’re going to want to build your buildings on a solid footing of granite, so Bitcoin is made to last forever — high integrity, very durable. Ethereum is trying to dematerialize exchanges and the financial establishment. I think that as the market starts to understand these things, there’s a place for everybody,” said Michael Saylor in an interview with CNBC.

Also Read: Top 14 Cryptocurrency Influencers You Should Follow on Social Media

Takeaways

 

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