Michael Saylor, a visionary entrepreneur and staunch advocate of Bitcoin, has etched his name in the annals of cryptocurrency history. However, he was not always an A-list crypto celebrity. Just two years ago, no one in the crypto industry knew who Michael J. Saylor was. Barely a year later, his words have serious weight — and the power to move Bitcoin’s price.

It all started on August 11, 2020, when the CEO of MicroStrategy announced that the business intelligence firm, listed on Nasdaq, was putting $250 million into Bitcoin for a long-term investment. So who is Michael Saylor?

Early Life

Michael Saylor was born in 1965 in Lincoln, Nebraska. From a young age, he displayed exceptional intellect and a keen interest in technology. His insatiable thirst for knowledge led him to pursue a degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Saylor's aspirations of becoming a pilot were derailed by a medical condition – a benign heart murmur – which prevented him from passing the required physical exams. Despite also dreaming of an academic career, he faced challenges in securing fellowship funding.

In light of his inability to pursue a career as a pilot, Saylor explored alternative paths. He commenced work at a consulting firm, focusing on the development of computer simulation models. However, the company ceased operations after just six months.

Subsequently, Saylor joined Dupont, where he continued to refine his skills in developing computer simulation models aimed at helping businesses forecast and adapt to significant market shifts. Having already gained experience in this field during his time at MIT, his academic pursuits culminated in a thesis involving the design of a Renaissance Italian city-state with a tripartite governmental structure. By leveraging computer science, he sought to create a more fair and stable governance system for the hypothetical state.

The predictive simulations crafted by Saylor highlighted an impending recession in several of DuPont's markets in 1990. Ultimately, Saylor's association with DuPont led to the chemical conglomerate providing the initial funding for his own venture, which later grew into the tech powerhouse known as MicroStrategy.

However, it was in the realm of cryptocurrency that Michael Saylor truly made waves. In 2020, he made a pivotal decision that would change the course of his career and the future of MicroStrategy.

"We're going all-in on Bitcoin. It's the future of finance, and we need to be at the forefront of this revolution." [Saylor to his team]

MicroStrategy

True to his word, Saylor led MicroStrategy to invest billions of dollars in Bitcoin, making it one of the first publicly traded companies to adopt the cryptocurrency as a treasury reserve asset. Saylor's unwavering belief in Bitcoin as a store of value and a hedge against inflation garnered widespread attention and admiration. His evangelism for the cryptocurrency earned him the moniker of "Bitcoin Evangelist."

He described Bitcoin as a “dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash.”

More than anything else, those four words — “dependable store of value” — are magic words on Wall Street. Saylor's action was groundbreaking - being the first CEO of a well-established public company to endorse Satoshi Nakamoto's cryptocurrency as a promising long-term investment and actually backing up his words by investing the company's treasury in it.

On September 15 2020, Saylor reaffirmed his commitment by investing an additional $175 million into MicroStrategy's balance sheet. This increased the total investment to $425 million, resulting in the acquisition of 38,250 BTC.

Since then, the company's cryptocurrency holdings have significantly increased. As of March 2021, the firm possessed 90,859 BTC, which was acquired for approximately $2.2 billion. With Bitcoin reaching a new record high of $61,683 later in the month, the value of this investment soared to an impressive $5.6 billion. MicroStrategy found itself with unrealized profits of $3.4 billion, just seven months after taking a bold risk.

When Saylor first revealed the $250 million Bitcoin investment, MicroStrategy's stock was trading at around $135. Subsequently, the share price skyrocketed and reached all-time highs of $1,272 on February 9, marking an impressive 842% increase. While the stock has dipped slightly since then, the current price of $631 is still a substantial figure.

By the most important measure on Wall Street, Saylor's actions undoubtedly qualify him as a genius.

Today

In most recent times, the enterprise software company acquired another 3,000 more Bitcoins this month for $155.4 million. This increased the total value of the company's holdings to approximately $9.88 billion, based on current currency market prices. The recent acquisitions were completed using cash between February 15 and February 25 2024, as reported in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 26 February. This brings the company's total Bitcoin holdings to around 193,000.

Trendsetter, Bitcoin Edition

Since MicroStrategy made its investment public in 2020, a wave of companies like Tesla, Square, and MassMutual have jumped on the Bitcoin bandwagon, pouring in hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars. Even investment titans like Stanley Druckenmiller, who was skeptical about crypto just months ago, now see BTC as a valuable asset for investors, joining the likes of Paul Tudor Jones and Jim Cramer in endorsing its place in portfolios.

Visa has unveiled intentions to enable customers to use cryptocurrency for direct payments at 70 million merchants. Meanwhile, major banks like JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley have begun providing cryptocurrency investment opportunities to affluent clients and institutional investors. As of early March, Goldman Sachs' digital assets chief, Matt McDermott, disclosed that 40% of the global investment bank's institutional clients were already involved in crypto assets. The topic even surfaced during Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's confirmation hearings.

While it may not be entirely accurate to attribute the mainstream acceptance of Bitcoin solely to Saylor, it is reasonable to suggest that his substantial investment and vocal advocacy likely expedited this process.

"Michael Saylor's decision to invest MicroStrategy's treasury has paved the way for other corporate leaders to explore adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets," Diogo Mónica, co-founder and president of crypto custodian Anchorage, told CoinMarketCap Academy.

At the initial announcement of MicroStrategy's Bitcoin investment, Saylor articulated the company's objective as transitioning to Bitcoin as its "primary treasury reserve asset."

Since then, Saylor's ambitions have expanded. He declared that MicroStrategy had evolved beyond being solely a software company and that its Bitcoin investments were not just a hedge against inflation but a strategic move. On February 17 2021, Saylor announced that MicroStrategy was issuing $900 million in debt to acquire additional BTC. A week later, the company indeed made a purchase of just over $1 billion worth of Bitcoin when the price was at $49,600.

"The company remains focused on our two corporate strategies of growing our enterprise analytics software business and acquiring and holding Bitcoin,” Saylor said on Feb. 24 2021. “The company now holds over 90,000 Bitcoins, reaffirming our belief that Bitcoin, as the world’s most widely adopted cryptocurrency, can serve as a dependable store of value.”

Furthermore, Saylor has been establishing himself as a corporate expert on purchasing Bitcoin, and he is gaining some recognition for it.

In early February, MicroStrategy hosted a "Bitcoin for Corporations" virtual event, which Saylor proudly mentioned had initially drawn in 1,400 corporate participants who registered. However, he underestimated the turnout significantly, as he revealed to Time recently:

"I thought it would be a couple of thousand people showing up. It ended up being more than 10,000 a day, and it broke our video server."

The Bitcoin Evangelist

By this point, Saylor was fully embracing his role as Bitcoin's advocate to Wall Street, and he seemed to be well-suited for the position. With a history of leading a stable and successful company for many years, he could communicate effectively with corporate executives using their language. Additionally, he possessed a flair for the dramatic, capable of making grandiose statements that resonated with crypto enthusiasts on platforms like Reddit and Twitter, even within the industry's typically bold environment.

At the top of his Twitter profile, Saylor prominently displayed a notable quote: "#Bitcoin is a swarm of cyber hornets serving the goddess of wisdom, feeding on the fire of truth, exponentially growing ever smarter, faster, and stronger behind a wall of encrypted energy."

Furthermore, Saylor cleverly hinted at his involvement in Elon Musk's decision to have Tesla invest $1.5 billion in Bitcoin for its treasury. In response to a tweet from Musk related to Bitcoin, Saylor suggested that shifting Tesla's treasury from dollars to BTC would benefit shareholders significantly. Musk then inquired about the feasibility of such a large transaction, to which Saylor assured him that it was indeed possible and offered to share his strategy with Musk offline based on his own substantial Bitcoin purchases.

In an interview with Time magazine, the exchange between Saylor and Musk was described as a casual Twitter interaction that solidified Saylor's reputation as a cryptocurrency expert. When asked directly if he had communicated with Musk, Saylor chose not to provide specifics, citing business etiquette.

However, when questioned about whether he believed the Twitter exchange influenced Tesla's decision, Saylor responded with a succinct "Yes."

In 2000, Saylor and other MicroStrategy executives settled fraud charges with the SEC for overstating revenues, which led to a significant drop in the company's stock price. Despite this setback, Saylor had pledged $100 million for an online university focused on free education worldwide, a goal that has yet to be fully realized.

Following the settlement, Saylor, as a majority shareholder, experienced a substantial financial hit and reportedly fell out of billionaire status. However, with time and his Bitcoin investments, Saylor managed to rebuild his wealth significantly. It is estimated that his current net worth in 2024 is approximately $2 billion and his stake in MicroStrategy suggests a net worth potentially reaching $6 billion.

Today, Michael Saylor continues to champion the cause of Bitcoin, inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs and investors to embrace the possibilities of decentralized finance.

Michael Saylor's journey is a testament to the power of vision, courage, and unwavering faith in the potential of disruptive technologies. His legacy as a pioneer in the world of cryptocurrency is one that will be remembered for generations to come.