Executive Chairman, MicroStrategy Inc.
MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor on Incoming Administration, Raising Capital | Bloomberg Talks
MicroStrategy Chairman & Co-Founder Michael Saylor discusses his opinions on a possible Crypto Advisory Council, and how MicroStrategy continues to raise capital with Bloomberg's Sonali Basak and Katie Greifeld.
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About Michael Saylor
Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy, has continued to promote Bitcoin as "digital capital" and to argue for the expansion of credit markets backed by Bitcoin. In mid-2026, during a bear market that saw Bitcoin drop from $120,000 to $60,000, Saylor defended his company's sale of 32 Bitcoin, stating that the company had net purchased roughly 250,000 Bitcoin over the same period. He characterized critics who objected to the sale as "Twitter trolls" and argued that "never sell your Bitcoin" is advice for individual investors, not for a publicly traded company structured to issue credit. Saylor has introduced and promoted a company instrument called STRC (Stretch), a preferred stock that he described as a "digital credit" product offering an 11.5% tax-deferred yield. He stated that the product is designed to funnel capital from traditional credit markets into Bitcoin, and described it as the "killer app" for a corporate Bitcoin treasury. Saylor has repeatedly said that Bitcoin could eventually reach $7 million per coin, arguing that the total capital need for a global digital asset could be $100 trillion. He urged regulatory reforms such as revising Basel rules to allow banks to hold Bitcoin. He described Strategy's role as a "shock absorber" in the market and said the company would continue to be the world's largest corporate buyer of Bitcoin. Saylor also stated he was prepared to sell Bitcoin to fund STRC dividends if necessary, though he said the company would buy "10 to 20 more" for each one sold. He dismissed speculation that Strategy posed a systemic risk to the market, and said he expects a capital rotation back into Bitcoin by the end of 2026.
Transcript (21 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Host0:02
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. MicroStrategy still buying Bitcoin amid the token's record run. It's bought the digital currency for six straight weeks, bringing its total haul to $45 billion. That's all before MicroStrategy joins the Nasdaq 100 index next week. Now the company's share price is outperforming Bitcoin itself this year, as retail traders and hedge funds pile in and capitalize on the volatility. I'm pleased to say that we're joined now by MicroStrategy co-founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor. And of course we're going to get to the Bitcoin purchases, but I actually want to start with the politics of it all because you've been relatively less vocal than some of your peers in the crypto community about your political views. And I have to ask, have you met with President-elect Donald Trump?
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Michael Saylor0:52
I've met with a lot of people in the incoming administration, but I couldn't comment further than that.
H
Host1:00
Okay, can't comment further than that. I was going to ask you about plans, but instead I'll ask you about whether or not you would be willing to serve in the Trump administration in any capacity. Bloomberg has reported that there potentially could be a crypto advisory council. Is that something that you might be interested in?
M
Michael Saylor1:18
I'm always willing to provide thoughts on constructive digital assets policy, either in confidence or publicly. And if I'm asked to serve on some sort of digital assets advisory council, I probably would do so, yes.
H
Host1:38
Michael, I also want to talk to you about MicroStrategy, your own plans. It's amazing. You have announced plans to raise $42 billion over three years. You announced that back in October, but the rate you're going at, and this is through convertible debt offerings, stock sales, the rate you're going at, you could fulfill that target by January. Are you planning to lift that cap and line up more facilities in the pursuit of more Bitcoin?
M
Michael Saylor2:03
When we announced it, it wasn't clear how enthusiastic the capital markets would be, but we got a very enthusiastic reception. And then after November 5th with the Red Wave, we saw a big sea change in the political environment, and so we went faster than we had thought we were going to go. On October 30th, our goal is to continue to raise capital primarily through fixed income market, so we'll pursue preferred stock or convertible bond or other equity-linked financings as long as it's accretive for our shareholders. When we get through the 21/21 plan, which is $42 billion in capital, we'll revisit our capital plan and we'll put in place a new plan subject to market conditions at the time.
H
Host2:55
All right, so we'll look forward to that. I am curious, you know, with what you've raised so far, it seems like you've been tapping the market facility more so than converts in order to raise cash. And I'm wondering if there's anything to read into that.
M
Michael Saylor3:07
Well, just the equity capital markets were very enthusiastic over the past four weeks, and so we're always considering, is it the convertible market, is it the fixed income market, is it the equity market we want to go to? And that's going to change from time to time. I expect that that mix will shift more heavily toward fixed income markets in Q1 as we go forward, because right now we're probably getting a little bit too delevered, and we'd like to actually get more leverage. We have about $7.2 billion of converts, but $4 billion of them are already essentially equity. They're through the strike price, they're through the call price, and they're trading with a delta approximately 100%, so they're looking like equity. And so we would like to go back and build more intelligent leverage for the benefit of our common stock shareholders.
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Host4:00
Yeah, speaking of common stock, of course one of the big pieces of news as Katie had talked about was your index inclusion in the Nasdaq 100. And one big question is, would you or are you selling newly issued stock to index trackers? Is equity something that you'd be looking to add to instead?
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Michael Saylor4:18
When we execute the ATM, we just sell equity into the market if we like the price and we like the terms. And if we think that the equity is undervalued, we don't. But we don't specify any particular buyer. I think that's just a pro rata to every other investor in the market.
H
Host4:41
So I want to get a little bit philosophical, because we're talking now about Nasdaq 100 inclusion and you're joining, of course, because MicroStrategy is nominally a software company. You founded it in 1989 as a software company. Do you still consider MicroStrategy a software company?
M
Michael Saylor5:00
Well, we have a very healthy software division now, and we're very proud of it, and I did create it. But we also think of ourselves primarily as a Bitcoin treasury company now. So our primary method of generating shareholder value is through our treasury operations. And if you think about it, there are three ways to create value for the shareholders. There's operating income, and our software business generates about $75 million a year of operating income. There's also investment income. That's been difficult to track, but right now we have $8.6 billion of unrealized investment income. People will start to get a better handle on that when we switch to fair value accounting next year, and then you'll actually see investment income captured in GAAP accounting. And then the third way to create shareholder value is acquisition income. So when Apple buys back its own stock or does M&A acquisitions, or when you do an LBO, you're basically taking capital which is cheap to buy a capital asset which is a higher return. So MicroStrategy is engaged in that capital acquisition process. We issue equity and debt, we buy Bitcoin. That's resulted in about a $14.4 billion benefit if you value the Bitcoin at 105 for our shareholders this year. And so we do all three of those. Obviously the big numbers, the investment income, the acquisition income, are more due to Bitcoin treasury operations.
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Host6:35
Well, I'm glad you brought up the accounting rules in particular for this reason, because obviously Nasdaq 100, wondering now with the rules around profitability for the S&P 500 inclusion, does that accounting rule get you to the place where you think that the S&P 500 comes next for you? And how soon do you think you can get there?
M
Michael Saylor6:55
I mean, obviously the decision to enter the S&P 500 is above my pay grade, so they will make that decision. But I'm optimistic. In 2025, when we adopt fair value accounting, when we end up with $50 billion of assets on our balance sheet, under fair value, if Bitcoin goes up 20% a year, you're looking at $10 billion a year of investment income. So I expect we'll be generating billions of dollars a year or tens of billions of dollars a year of investment income, which becomes GAAP profitability. And I think that is the final thing people are looking for for inclusion in the S&P. And that would certainly be a sign of the times if you did get included in the S&P 500.
H
Host7:42
So we'll have to keep in touch on that one. But I want to go back to the Bitcoin buying, and I want to talk about how you actually purchase the Bitcoin. Are you buying through an exchange, over the counter, peer-to-peer? This of course is made more interesting by the fact that obviously you're buying in bulk.
M
Michael Saylor8:00
We use regulated exchanges in the United States like Coinbase. And when we're buying, we'll be buying on a simple TWAP algorithm. So our goal is to not be noticed by the market, not to move the market. If anything happens with the Bitcoin price or even with the MicroStrategy price, it isn't us. Our objective is to basically be market participants but never move it up or down or be noticed.
H
Host8:31
It's interesting. I want to go back to something Katie was talking about before, definitions here, are you a software company or not. But when you think about the legacy software business at MicroStrategy, what role does it have? Would you consider spinning it off?
M
Michael Saylor8:45
No, we're very partial to it. We love the software business. I invented a large piece of it. We love our customers, we enjoy it, it's profitable, and it's a core part of the company identity.
H
Host9:00
All right, well worth asking anyway. I am curious about this unique treasury model that you have. Obviously you've had great success at MicroStrategy with having a Bitcoin treasury. You recently pitched Microsoft on investing in Bitcoin. That was rejected. But are you surprised that you haven't seen more traditional companies follow your lead here and invest in Bitcoin?
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Michael Saylor9:24
I think Microsoft is one of the great companies in the world, so they don't really have a need to adopt a new idea. But in essence, Microsoft's strategies are to buy their own stock back, to park short-term cash in treasuries, and then to pay out dividends. That's very conventional. That's the finance playbook that would be taught at Harvard Business School. And if you're a successful company with a great business, you tend to stick with that playbook. The playbook changed really a few days ago when fair value accounting became mandatory. We go into 2025, I expect you'll see the repeal of SAB 121, I think you'll see fair value accounting, I think you'll see Bitcoin embraced as a digital commodity by the regulators. We already can see the political winds have very favorably shifted. Now for the first time in a hundred years, large public companies have a capital asset that they can consider in lieu of treasury bills, and that's Bitcoin. It doesn't make sense to consider real estate or gold or paintings or barrels of oil as a treasury asset. It does make sense to consider Bitcoin. So really we're year one of a new era. And I would think that the companies that embrace it first are the ones that have a need to know or they're very close to the Bitcoin industry, the digital assets industry. The Magnificent Seven, they'll embrace it later because they don't need it now.
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Host10:55
All right, Michael, that's a good place to leave it. Always great to speak with you. That of course is Michael Saylor, he is MicroStrategy chairman and co-founder.