Michael Saylor missed out on a $33 billion profit at Strategy

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) managed to turn an unrealized bitcoin (BTC) profit of $32.6 billion into a $2.2 billion loss thanks to founder Michael Saylor’s reluctance to sell.

To be specific, four months ago on October 6, the company owned 640,031 BTC acquired for $73,983 apiece but worth $125,000 apiece at prevailing market prices.

As of yesterday’s Nasdaq close, however, Strategy now owns 713,502 BTC acquired for $76,052 and worth just $72,925.

In other words, Strategy had an unrealized BTC profit of $32.6 billion on October 6 that has turned into a $2.2 billion loss.

Even excluding the last four months of purchases to restrict yesterday’s figure to the original 640,031 BTC, that still recalculates to an equally embarrassing swing from a $32.6 billion profit to a $670 million loss on only the BTC the company owned four months ago.

Read more: Michael Saylor is running out of ways to boost Strategy’s BTC per share

New lows across multiple metrics

Management’s choice to not sell means Strategy’s balance sheet has $33 billion less in assets than it could have, less capital gains tax.

This figure also ignores the effects on BTC’s price of Strategy selling such large sums.

As of yesterday’s close, the company’s common stock MSTR had a market capitalization of just 0.82x the value of the company’s BTC holdings — down 75% from its November 2024 high of 3.4x.

In addition to a 76% loss since its November 2024 high, including its latest 52-week decline of 61%, Strategy leadership has also failed to capture those tens of billions of dollars of investment income along the way.

It might seem tempting, given these losses, to point to a reminder of Saylor’s previously devout and confident proclamations that he never intended to sell Strategy’s BTC.

Unfortunately, he did say those things in the distant past, but even that promise has been deteriorating along with most other metrics at Strategy.

Indeed, Saylor now discusses the possibility of selling Strategy’s BTC, including official statements from the company and its CEO, albeit in euphemisms such as raising capital or covering dividend obligations.

Moreover, the company recently diluted equity holders for $1.44 billion with $0 in associated BTC purchases in order to shore up USD, not BTC, for a rainy day. That day might be arriving soon.

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