Jack Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter and Square, recently stepped back from his role as Twitter’s CEO with the goal of doubling down on Bitcoin, which according to his own statements is the most important work he could focus on.
Michael Saylor, another big bitcoin proponent, announced earlier this week that he was going to step back as the CEO of Microstrategy.
The president of the company, Phong Le, will take over in the CEO role.
Saylor mentioned that is is going to stay on board as an executive chairman of Microstrategy. Ever since Michael Saylor’s fascination with bitcoin, the software analytics company had a dual focus: It’s core business, which is business intelligence and analytics software.
On the other hand, Microstrategy acquired bitcoin for its corporate treasury at an unprecedented scale.
As of June 2022, the company holds 129,699 bitcoin worth over $3 billion. This turned the company’s stock into a proxy for bitcoin. Ever since the large bitcoin acquisition, the company’s stock has been closely correlated with bitcoin price movements.
There had been rumors, mostly spread by mainstream media and bitcoin critics, that Microstrategy was facing potential liquidation when the bitcoin price dropped significantly.
Microstrategy had taken on additional debt to acquire more bitcoin. But Saylor stated on several occasions that the bitcoin price could drop as low as $3,500 before the company was in serious trouble.
Even at that price, the company could post additional collateral to prevent liquidation. On top of this, the company still generates cash flow from its core software business and didn’t invest in anything else than bitcoin, putting it in a different situation than some other companies that recently went bankrupt like Celsius.
Whether Saylor stepping down as CEO has anything to do with the current bitcoin bear market is unclear. However, the former Microstrategy CEO made the following statement on Twitter today:
According to Saylor, the goal is simply to structure the company in a way that serves Microstrategy’s dual focus more optimally. With the new setup, Phong Le can lead the company’s core business while Saylor remains executive chairman and will focus exclusively on the company’s current and future bitcoin acquisitions.
