The American business intelligence company MicroStrategy has announced that Michael Saylor, will be stepping down as CEO and taking up the role of Executive Chairman in order to focus on acquiring more cryptocurrency.
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Company President Phong Le will serve as the new CEO of MicroStrategy. Messrs Le and Saylor will continue to stay on the company’s board.
“As Executive Chairman I will be able to focus more on our bitcoin acquisition strategy and related bitcoin advocacy initiatives, while Phong will be empowered as CEO to manage overall corporate operations,” said Mr. Saylor in a release posted on August 2.
Mr. Saylor’s company MicroStrategy has acquired approximately 129,699 Bitcoin. However, the value of his investments is down by 25.14%, or over $999 million, according to the Saylor Tracker website. The former CEO is a strong supporter of Bitcoin and promotes its underlying technology on social media.
“#Bitcoin is a swarm of cyber hornets serving the goddess of wisdom, feeding on the fire of truth, exponentially growing ever smarter, faster, and stronger behind a wall of encrypted energy,” stated the pinned tweet on his Twitter account.
Mr. Saylor, who is a billionaire, has also bought Bitcoin when its price crashed, a tactic known as ‘buying the dip.’ However, Bitcoin’s value has more than halved in 2022.
“As of June 30, 2022, the carrying value of MicroStrategy’s digital assets (comprised of approximately 129,699 bitcoins) was $1.988 billion, which reflects cumulative impairment losses of $1.989 billion since acquisition and an average carrying amount per bitcoin of approximately $15,326,” stated the report.
Along with the announcement, MicroStrategy also shared its Q2 results yesterday. Total revenues for the quarter fell to $122.1 million. Net losses were also high, as the total came to $1.062 billion this quarter when compared to $299.3 million for the second quarter of 2021.
Mr. Saylor founded MicroStrategy and has served as its CEO since 1989.
The news comes as the crypto sector struggles to recover from an ongoing bear market and the May 2022 crypto crash, which was triggered by the collapse of the LUNA and TerraUSD cryptocurrencies.
Though Mr. Saylor is still enthusiastic about Bitcoin’s potential, MicroStrategy’s latest results reveal the risks of holding large stores of the volatile asset.
MicroStrategy stock is up by 12.53% in the past five days.
