Shortly after electric vehicle maker Tesla revealed that it had sold three-quarters of its Bitcoin holdings, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor took to Twitter to publicly do the math.
“If you sell 75% of your bitcoin, you will only have 25% of your bitcoin left,” Saylor tweeted.
MicroStrategy’s CEO appeared to scoff at Elon Musk’s company’s announcement that it had traded 75% of its Bitcoin holdings for roughly $936 million in fiat currency over the past few months, as reported disclosed in its second quarter earnings report.
If you sell 75% of your bitcoin, you will only have 25% of your #bitcoin left.
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) July 20, 2022
One of Bitcoin’s strongest advocates, Saylor has repeatedly emphasized MicroStrategy’s commitment to Bitcoin, despite the crypto market collapsing in 2022. The software company owns 129,699 Bitcoin (worth about $2.9 billion dollars at current prices); Saylor has stated that the company “structured its balance sheet” so that it can continue to hold Bitcoin “through adversity.”
MicroStrategy has continued to buy the dip during the crypto bear market; in June, Saylor revealed that the company had bought another 480 Bitcoins for about $10 million, at an average price of about $20,000 per coin.
MicroStrategy has purchased an additional 480 bitcoins for ~$10.0 million at an average price of ~$20,817 per #bitcoin. As of 06/28/22, @MicroStrategy has ~129,699 bitcoins acquired for ~$3.98 billion at an average price of ~$30,664 per bitcoin. $MSTR
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) June 29, 2022
Tesla and Musk have had a more direct relationship with Bitcoin since the company bought the cryptocurrency for $1.5 billion in February 2021, after Saylor offered Musk advice on how to buy Bitcoin. The move sent the price of Bitcoin soaring to $43,000, an all-time high at the time, as Musk took to Twitter to defend Bitcoin and Dogecoin.
At the time of its investment, Tesla announced that customers could also buy its cars with Bitcoin, but a few months later the company reversed its position, citing the high energy consumption and environmental impact of the cryptocurrency
However, the company said it would continue to hold its Bitcoin and would reinstate Bitcoin purchases when mining moved to using more sustainable energy sources. A week later, Musk tweeted “diamond hands” emojis, which investors often use to suggest they’re in it for the long haul. Today, Saylor posted the same series of emojis, in another apparent reference to Musk.
In Tesla’s latest earnings call, Musk explained that the company had sold its position in Bitcoin due to the financial turmoil caused by the blockades in China. He said: “It was important for us to maximize our cash position.”
Musk also said that he and Tesla are open to increasing the company’s ownership of Bitcoin in the future, and that Tesla has not sold any of its investment in Dogecoin. On the call, the billionaire stressed that cryptocurrency is “a sideshow” for Tesla.
“This should not be taken as a verdict on Bitcoin,” he said. “We are neither here nor there in cryptocurrency.”
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