MicroStrategy CEO on Square’s ‘Extraordinary’ Bitcoin Investment

Michael Saylor, CEO of business intelligence firm MicroStrategy, described payment company Square’s $50 million Bitcoin investment as “an extraordinary piece of news,” on the WhatBitcoinDid podcast today. 

Between August 11 and September 14, Microstrategy invested $425 million into Bitcoin. Then, approximately three weeks later on October 8, 2020, Square followed suit with a smaller investment. Now, MicroStrategy’s CEO has weighed in on the latest Bitcoin bet.

Square didn’t make this investment for financial reasons, according to Saylor. “They don’t need the money, they’ve got more money than God.”

Instead, their investment is somewhat of a political or ethical statement. Saylor mentioned in the interview that there are 932 million people in 22 countries with collapsing currencies and described Bitcoin as like a lifeboat for these individuals. In turn, Square “wrapped that entire move with the agenda of ‘make the world a better place,’ who wants to stand against that?” Saylor asked.

“I am delighted that this is injecting positive, constructive, inspirational energy into this space, and I think only good things are going to come from that,” Saylor added.

Square’s investment might even prompt Twitter or Facebook to make similar Bitcoin investments. “There are a lot of people that will look to Square as an extraordinary, successful, progressive company, and they’re going to want to copy this, because who wants to argue with success?” Saylor said.

Saylor has now praised Bitcoin’s long term investment possibilities several times. But, in light of Square’s investment, Bitcoin’s potential might also start attracting short term traders. He said the “fast money dudes” on Wall Street will be thinking about getting ahead of the next investor to follow Jack Dorsey’s lead. This in turn, can promote “an avalanche of wonderful things that happen, and all of them add up to this simple observation: ‘Bitcoin is a good thing, it’s a safe thing, and you might want to get some.’”

“You can describe crypto as Vegas in cyberspace, or you can describe crypto as the savings and loan at the end of the universe,” Saylor said, adding that “if what you wanted was the savings and loan at the end of the universe, you want Bitcoin.” In other words, the idea that Bitcoin affords investors with trust, reliability, and long term appreciation. 

Conversely, the decentralized finance (DeFi) movement, for Saylor, is closer to Vegas in cyberspace. He said, “The entire DeFi movement is all about smart people doing complicated things in a hurry in order to get some edge on some other smart person, and it’s a little bit too much of a wild west.”

Update: Saylor's quotation has been corrected to show that he said "savings and loan" on the podcast, instead of "savings alone."