MicroStrategy’s Saylor Sells $216M Shares to Acquire More BTC

• MicroStrategy’s executive chairman, Michael Saylor, is selling $216 million worth of company shares.
• Saylor plans to use the proceeds to expand his personal Bitcoin holdings.
• The sell-off began with 5,000 shares on January 2, with 5,000 shares scheduled to be sold every trading day for the next four months.

MicroStrategy‘s executive chairman, Michael Saylor, has begun selling $216 million worth of his shares in the company. The decision reveals Saylor’s intention to utilize part of the proceeds to expand his personal Bitcoin holdings.

Saylor, a prominent advocate for cryptocurrency adoption, unveiled this plan in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The regulatory filing reveals that Saylor is selling 315,000 MicroStrategy shares acquired via stock options. 310,000 of these were granted in 2014 and are set to expire in April of this year.

Saylor has already begun the sell-off, initiating the process with the sale of the first tranche consisting of 5,000 shares on January 2. During MicroStrategy’s third-quarter earnings call, he disclosed his intention to sell 5,000 shares per trading day over the next four months, subject to a minimum price condition. Regarding the reasons behind this, Saylor stated,

Exercising this option will allow me to address personal obligations as well as acquire additional Bitcoin to my personal account.

Despite the substantial liquidation, Saylor emphasized that his stake in MicroStrategy’s equity remains “significant.”

The move comes at a time when MicroStrategy (MSTR) has outperformed Bitcoin (BTC), which experienced a remarkable 170% rally throughout the past year, with a staggering 411% gain over the same period, according to TradingView data.

The sale of a substantial amount of shares by Saylor follows MicroStrategy’s recent acquisition of an additional 14,620 BTC last week. This latest purchase brings MicroStrategy’s total Bitcoin holdings to a whopping 189,150 BTC, currently valued at around $8.6 billion.

MicroStrategy has emerged as an industry titan in the crypto space, proudly holding the title of the largest corporate Bitcoin holder. With BTC soaring above $45,000, MicroStrategy now holds an impressive unrealized profit of $2.65 billion from its initial Bitcoin investments.