In brief

  • CEO Michael Saylor recently led business intelligence firm MicroStrategy into buying more than $400 million worth of Bitcoin.
  • Saylor tweeted that Bitcoin’s ‘days were numbered’ in 2013.
  • He recently elaborated on the apparent turnaround on Anthony Pompliano’s The Pomp Podcast.

Bitcoin gains more supporters every day, but Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor’s decision to convert $425 million of cash to digital gold may be part of one of the biggest volte-faces in crypto history. So why did he change his mind?

MicroStrategy, a business intelligence consulting firm, made headlines when it bought up hundreds of millions of dollars worth Bitcoin in August and September. 

“This investment reflects our belief that Bitcoin, as the world’s most widely-adopted cryptocurrency, is a dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash,” said Saylor in an August press release announcing the initial purchase of $250 million worth of BTC.

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But Saylor wasn’t always so supportive of the world’s first cryptocurrency. In December 2013, he tweeted that Bitcoin’s days were numbered, and would go the way of online gambling: competed or regulated out of existence.

Online gambling, of course, is still alive and well, valued at more than $53 billion in 2019. And Bitcoin is up more than 15x since Saylor’s 2013 tweet.

So, what was it that made Saylor so confident at the time that Bitcoin could never succeed? Was it the Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange hack of about 740,000 BTC? Could it have been the December 2013 policy release from the Chinese government outlining the risks of Bitcoin for its citizens?

As it turns out, none of the above. "I literally forgot I ever said that," Saylor told Anthony Pompliano on The Pomp Podcast on September 16.

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Saylor explained he had no recollection of making the bearish tweet until it was brought to his attention by enterprising Bitcoiners sorting through old tweets following his announcement of MicroStrategy's spending spree.

In the podcast, Saylor also shed more light on the rationale behind putting a majority of Microstrategy’s idle assets into Bitcoin. He said it was the ultimate inflation hedge and asserted that Bitcoin was 1000x better than gold in that role.

Saylor told Pompliano he posted more freely on Twitter in 2013. These days, he tweets about MicroStrategy and its research. Bitcoin’s rising price has led Saylor back to crypto. 

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