MicroStrategy CEO embraces Bitcoin maximalism

Company bought roughly 17,000 bitcoins as the company makes it its primary reserve currency

In the past, MicroStrategy and its CEO had criticised Bitcoin; now the company has now turned to the cryptocurrency as its primary reserve currency. The CEO of the business intelligence company recently revealed it had bought 16,796 bitcoins at an aggregate price of $175 million. At the moment, MicroStrategy has bought a total of 38,250 bitcoins at an aggregate purchase price of $425 million.

In his tweet yesterday, the CEO Michael Saylor admitted that the company uses Bitcoin as its primary reserve currency over the other altcoins. He stated he believes Bitcoin is a crypto asset network, unlike stablecoins and Ethereum (ETH), which he terms as “crypto-application networks”.

Saylor posted a chart from the Bitcoin dominance site, claiming that the dominance of Bitcoin has increased from a low of 71.05% on December 20, 2017, to 93.57% on September 20. The NASDAQ-listed company had changed its tone regarding Bitcoin after buying the cryptocurrency for the first time on August 11. MicroStrategy started with 21,454 bitcoins at an aggregate price of $250 million before adding 16,796 bitcoins last week.

Saylor now a Bitcoin bull

Saylor was a known critic of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency space in the past. In December 2013, Saylor tweeted that Bitcoin’s days are numbered. The CEO believes it was only a matter of time before the cryptocurrency suffers a similar fate to online gambling.

In a podcast interview with Anthony Pompliano, published Wednesday, Saylor revealed he had forgotten about his 2013 tweet until the day he tweeted that MicroStrategy had bought $250 million worth of bitcoins. He added that the cryptocurrency community reminded him of his tweet, and he admitted to being wrong about Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency space.

Saylor revealed that he decided to purchase Bitcoin as the company had $500 million cash on hand and faced the challenge of what to invest in to preserve its value. He had to encourage the company’s board to read about Bitcoin and watch some videos to convince them that it is the right asset to invest in and preserve the wealth.

The CEO believes that Bitcoin is a better investment than gold. He stated that “Bitcoin is an anti-fragile, evolving thing. It’s the hardest currency because it’s getting continually exponentially harder, but it’s also smarter, stronger and faster than gold”.

Saylor isn’t alone in believing that most of the other altcoins are scams. Emin Gun Sirer, the creator of the first PoW-based crypto, stated earlier this year that most of the cryptocurrency projects are just recycling an idea that belongs to someone.