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Can MicroStrategy (and Michael Saylor) Buy All the Bitcoin?
By December 2020 MicroStrategy had spent $1.125 billion adding 70,470 Bitcoin to their balance sheet with an average price of $15,964 per Bitcoin. Today, they hold 444,262 Bitcoin having spent $27.7 billion on their purchases.
Adam Atlantic
January 06, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
MicroStrategy (MSTR) has a chequered history.
From early 1999 to early 2000 the company’s stock price ran up 4,600% from around $7 to over $333. Then on 20 March 2000 the stock fell 62% in a single day after having to restate financial results for the two years prior.[1]
Their CEO at the time, company founder, Michael Saylor.
On August 11, 2020 at the height of the pandemic, Saylor announced that MicroStrategy would be adopting a bitcoin strategy, adding 21,454 Bitcoin to their treasury operations.[2] The stock price at the time was around $13.
Saylor said:
‘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.’
By December 2020 MicroStrategy had spent $1.125 billion adding 70,470 Bitcoin to their balance sheet with an average price of $15,964 per Bitcoin.
Today, they hold 444,262 Bitcoin having spent $27.7 billion on their purchases.[3]
All of this Bitcoin buying is to proceed with their strategy of making MicroStrategy a Bitcoin development company. In reality they’re trying to buy as much Bitcoin as they can, as fast as they can so that no one else can.
Saylor has even said he’ll keep buying a billion dollars a day at $1 million per Bitcoin if need be. And considering what he wants to do with MicroStrategy he might just keep that promise.
MicroStrategy wants to increase by 3,030%
Right now, MicroStrategy has 330 million authorized class A common stock. The company wants to increase that to… wait for it… 10.330 billion.
They want to lift their authorized stock level 3,030%.
Why? Well according to a Form Pre-14A filing from last week it’s to further accelerate their ability to sell stock “at-the-market” and also via convertible notes in order to buy even more Bitcoin.[4]
Here’s the thing, right now with 444,262 Bitcoin, MicroStrategy owns 2.11% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist. As it stands, only 19.8 million have been mined, and estimates are that around three to four million are lost forever.
So, in reality, right now, MicroStrategy actually own 2.8% of Bitcoin.
If MicroStrategy keeps going, keeps raising capital, buying more Bitcoin, it’s fair to say they may never stop.
But can they just keep going?
Who else is buying all the Bitcoin?
Well, in short, no. At some point they will hit a limit. There are ETFs all over the world adding Bitcoin to their holdings. The BlackRock IBIT ETF for example holds 552,554 Bitcoin (and growing), but it isn’t the only ETF adding more Bitcoin to their holdings.[5]
MARA Holdings (MARA) (a huge Bitcoin miner) holds 44,394 and is now following what MicroStrategy are doing to add more to their balance sheet, but they are not the only other company adding Bitcoin.[6]
And if you’ve been paying attention to the news, the US may be adding as much as one million Bitcoin to a ‘Strategic Bitcoin Reserve’. They are however not the only country buying (or considering buying) Bitcoin.
MicroStrategy will run out of Bitcoin to buy. Everyone will eventually run out of Bitcoin to buy… unless the price climbs so high that all the individual ‘hodlers’ over the years find themselves in so much wealth they’ll cash in some chips, or cash out of the ETFs.
Point being, if MicroStrategy is intent on buying all the Bitcoin, along with other multi-billion-dollar companies, swathes of family offices, investors, millionaires, billionaires, ETFs and nation states then demand will continue to severely outstrip supply, forcing the price higher.
This may make MicroStrategy the most valuable company on earth. It may also be the most bullish sign we’ve ever seen for Bitcoin’s price.
And it might also make Saylor the richest American in history.
Trust in crypto,
Adam Atlantic