Michael Saylor, the executive chairman of the newly renamed Strategy, stirred up a social media storm this week with an eyebrow-raising suggestion to his 4 million followers on X (formerly Twitter). In a post on Thursday, Saylor told his audience to “sell a kidney if you must, but keep the Bitcoin,” as the cryptocurrency faced a sharp decline in value.
The comment came as Bitcoin’s price hovered around $84,000 on Friday, marking a 13% drop over the past seven days. Despite the slump, Saylor—one of Bitcoin’s most vocal evangelists—remains unwavering in his support for the digital asset, even as it faces significant volatility.
This is not the first time Saylor has encouraged drastic measures to secure Bitcoin. In the past, he’s advised followers to mortgage their homes or sell family businesses to buy into the cryptocurrency. His latest comment, while generating a mix of jokes and criticism online, reflects his deep commitment to Bitcoin, regardless of its market performance.
Saylor’s company, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), has closely aligned itself with Bitcoin since he took the helm. The company has made over 50 separate Bitcoin purchases since 2020, often using leverage. As of Friday, Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings are valued at $41.9 billion. This year alone, the company has made several multimillion-dollar Bitcoin acquisitions, including its largest-ever quarterly purchase in Q4, which added $20.5 billion worth of Bitcoin to its balance sheet.
Despite growing concerns from experts about Strategy’s overvaluation and the risks of its leveraged Bitcoin purchases, Saylor remains resolute in his faith in the cryptocurrency. The 60-year-old entrepreneur has been actively engaging with crypto-friendly politicians and key figures in the Trump administration, including Eric Trump.
At last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Saylor proposed the idea of a national Bitcoin reserve, suggesting that the U.S. should purchase 20% of the total Bitcoin supply—a move that could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars at current market prices. Saylor believes that such a reserve could help strengthen the U.S. dollar.
In a bold move reflecting his unwavering belief in Bitcoin, Saylor’s company also recently rebranded itself as Strategy, incorporating the Bitcoin symbol into its corporate logo. “It ties our identity much more closely to Bitcoin and all of the positive aspects of the Bitcoin network in the world,” Saylor said in explaining the rebrand.
As Bitcoin’s price continues to fluctuate, Saylor’s controversial calls for extreme actions to secure the digital currency are likely to remain a hot topic for both supporters and critics alike.