Saylor's Bitcoin Strategy
Michael Saylor has been pushing the idea that corporate reserves can be managed differently for years. Instead of cash and bonds, the focus is on Bitcoin.
His company, formerly MicroStrategy and now Strategy, started buying BTC in August 2020. Since then, the purchases have not stopped. By September 2025. Strategy raised about 640,000 BTC, which was worth more than $73 billion at then-time prices.
The average purchase price is in the range of several tens of thousands of dollars. This means that the company is currently in a big unrealized plus. Saylor does not hide this and openly says that he sees Bitcoin as a long-term reserve and not a short-term bet.
For him, Bitcoin is a hedge against inflation and an asset that no one can dilute. He believes that institutional capital is just about to start getting serious into crypto and that Strategy is thus taking a position ahead of the rest of the market.
Saylor’s thesis is clear. If Wall Street transfers only 10 percent of its assets to Bitcoin, the price could go towards $1 million per coin.
An interesting detail is that the first purchase of Bitcoin from the corporate treasury was made in August 2020. At that time, $250 million was invested in BTC, which was an unprecedented move for a public company at the time.
Source: cointelegraph
Bitcoin as an optimal reserve currency
Saylor’s strategy is simple and consistent. Buy Bitcoin, hold it for the long term, and incorporate it into the very structure of the company. There are no quick exits or attempts to time the market.
Since 2020. Strategy uses excess cash, borrowing, and stock issuance to steadily increase the BTC position. It all comes down to one goal. Accumulation of coins over time.
Today, the firm holds about 640,000 BTC, which is close to 3 percent of the total supply of Bitcoin. The average purchase price is around $74,000 per coin. They arrived at this amount through a combination of low-interest convertible bonds, preferred shares and the sale of shares directly on the market, with the dilution control of existing shareholders.
Volatility is not treated as a problem. Price drops are a buying opportunity. The strategy is to buy in weakness, hold through volatile periods, and rely on the limited supply of Bitcoin for the long term.
Such an approach stems from Saylor’s view of money. According to him, cash loses value from year to year due to inflation. Bitcoin has a fixed supply of 21 million coins, defined by code and halving cycles that further reduce new issuance.
Unlike gold, Bitcoin does not need to be physically stored, transported, or verified. It is digital, global, and secured by a decentralized network, making it more resilient to political and regulatory pressure.
Saylor also sees it as a diversification tool. The correlation with stocks and bonds is weaker than before, giving Bitcoin a hedge character in environments of high inflation and aggressive monetary policy.
Because of all this, Bitcoin is the optimal reserve asset for him. Limited, portable, resilient and adapted to the world to come.
An interesting fact is that by mid-2025, almost 95 percent of all Bitcoins had been mined. There are just over a million coins left to the maximum supply.
Source: cointelegraph
Path to the price of 1M dollars
Saylor’s most controversial claim is that Bitcoin can reach a price of $1 million per coin in the long run. His argument is not emotional, but mathematical.
It’s based on institutional capital. Pension funds, insurers, investment funds and asset managers together control more than $100 trillion. If only 10 percent of that money goes into Bitcoin, we’re talking about $10 to $12 trillion in demand.
When this amount is distributed over a maximum of 21 million coins, it comes to a price close to $475,000 per BTC. But Saylor claims that the actual supply is much smaller.
It is estimated that between 2.3 and 3.7 million Bitcoins were permanently lost. In addition, a large part of the offer is held by long-term holders. Coins that haven’t moved in seven or more years, along with corporate reserves, make up about a quarter of the total supply.
More than 70 percent of Bitcoin is considered illiquid today. It is held by entities that rarely sell and do not react to short-term price movements. This means that only a small amount of coins are available in the market.
If the calculation is made with a real liquid supply of about 16 to 18 million BTC, the same institutional allocation pushes the price into the range of $550,000 to $750,000 per coin.
Add to that the growth of total assets of institutions over time or allocations of more than 10 percent, and the million dollar mark no longer looks unattainable.
Saylor stresses, however, that this will not happen soon. Regulatory approvals, internal risk boards, and liquidity constraints mean that the entry of institutional capital would be gradual rather than abrupt.
An interesting detail is one of the largest known cases of lost Bitcoin. About 8,000 BTC ended up in a landfill in Newport, Wales, after a hard drive with a private key was accidentally dumped.
Source: cointelegraph
How does Strategy fund Bitcoin purchases?
Strategy does not fund Bitcoin purchases from operational operations. Instead, it uses financial instruments that classic public companies rarely associate with the purchase of coins. The focus is on borrowing and capital that can be converted into shares.
Convertible bonds
The main tool is convertible senior bonds. It is a debt that can be converted into an equity stake under certain conditions. Interest rates are often very low or even zero, which means that the firm does not have a large cash expense.
In mid-2024. Through such an offering, Strategy raised about $800 million, net about $786 million, with a conversion premium of 35 percent. That money was used to buy 11,931 BTC at an average price of about $65,900. Soon after, another deal worth about $600 million followed.
This structure allows capital to be provided immediately, while potential dilution of shareholders is postponed until the moment of conversion. This gives the Strategy additional flexibility.
Preferred shares and special offers
In addition to debt, Strategy also issues preferred shares. They usually offer a higher return to investors and have less stringent conditions than classic debt.
An example is the issue of Stretch preferred shares, marked STRC, with a variable dividend that starts at around 9 percent per year. In the offer itself, it is clearly stated that the funds are used to buy Bitcoin.
In July 2025, the planned Stretch offer was increased from $500 million to as much as $2 billion, which shows strong investor interest. Some of the internal people also participated in the issue with a yield of 11.75 percent, which further confirms the demand for such exposures.
What's next?
Strategy’s growth into the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin comes at a price. The company today functions almost like a leveraged Bitcoin fund. The stock price strongly follows the movement of the BTC price, up and down.
As new purchases are financed through share issuances, convertible debt and preferred securities, existing shareholders carry dilution risk. This is part of the strategy and is not without consequences.
Analysts usually point out several risks. Regulation is one of them. Changes to tax or accounting rules could complicate keeping Bitcoin on the balance sheet. There is also an opportunity cost, as billions of dollars are tied to an extremely volatile asset. The third factor is the uncertainty of institutional demand because the thesis of a million dollars per coin depends on whether Wall Street will actually allocate about 10 percent of assets in BTC.
Nevertheless, the impact of Strategy is hard to ignore. The company has helped normalize Bitcoin on corporate balance sheets and accelerated the development of custody services, ETF products, and the institutional OTC market.
Looking ahead, a few things are crucial. What future capital raises and financing structures will look like. Will the regulatory rules around Bitcoin accounting and taxation become clearer. And most importantly, will large asset managers start transferring the actual portion of assets under management to Bitcoin.
If these trends materialize, Saylor’s bet could permanently change the way companies view reserves and solidify Bitcoin as a serious component of the global financial system.
