Recently, there are times when I’m prompted to take another look at Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin strategy. This figure is not merely a corporate executive; he’s a symbolic example of how institutional investors enter the cryptocurrency market.

Michael Saylor is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of MicroStrategy. He originally led a business intelligence company, but during the pandemic period in 2020, he made a major shift in direction. At the time, out of concern about inflation, he decided to include Bitcoin as a corporate asset. This decision would later significantly change the company’s Bitcoin holdings strategy.

Michael Saylor’s belief in Bitcoin—what he calls “digital gold”—has remained consistent. In his view, Bitcoin is not just a trend, but a value-preserving store of value that holds up against inflation, and among the assets that human beings can hold, it is the safest and easiest to carry. This philosophy is at the core of MicroStrategy’s investment strategy.

What is especially noteworthy about MicroStrategy’s approach is its use of a debt strategy. It adopts a bold method of raising billions of dollars through convertible bonds and using that capital to purchase Bitcoin. Beginning with a $650 million raise in the latter half of 2020, it announced in October 2024 a plan to raise $42 billion over the next 3 years. As of November 2024, it had issued approximately $2.6 billion in convertible bonds, raising a total of $3 billion in debt.

As of November 2024, MicroStrategy holds 331,200 Bitcoins. This is equivalent to more than 1.4% of the total Bitcoin supply and has been accumulated over a long period using dollar-cost averaging. The average purchase cost is about $50,000 per BTC, and at the time, its value was more than $32.5 billion. This investment contributed greatly to MSTR stock price rising by 450% or more by 2024.

The impact Michael Saylor’s strategy has had on the market as a whole cannot be ignored. Other major companies, such as Tesla and Square, have followed the same path and started incorporating Bitcoin as an institutional asset. In other words, Michael Saylor is a pioneering figure who helped drive the corporate adoption of Bitcoin. Large-scale corporate acquisitions also influence market prices, showing just how important institutional investors’ entry is to shaping the cryptocurrency market.

Of course, there are risks. MicroStrategy’s financial condition is heavily affected by Bitcoin’s price fluctuations. During Bitcoin’s decline in 2022, it also experienced margin-call pressure related to its loans. High returns and high risk go hand in hand.

As of November 2024, Michael Saylor’s net worth exceeds $11 billion. This is also a number that can be seen as reflecting the success of MicroStrategy’s aggressive Bitcoin strategy.

Going forward, as cryptocurrencies become even more integrated into mainstream finance, it will become clearer just how important pioneers like Michael Saylor are. For him, Bitcoin is not just a business strategy—it’s a belief in a decentralized financial system and a bet on the possibility of empowering individuals around the world.