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Key Takeaways
- Shares of bitcoin-linked company Strategy has fallen over 45% in the past year, underperforming the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.
- Michael Saylor, Strategy’s cofounder and executive chairman, said “what we’re building goes beyond bitcoin exposure.”
Bitcoin crusader and Strategy front-man Michael Saylor has a new story to tell about his company. Some experts think it could help revive the company’s beleaguered stock.
For years, the company and its shares attracted a loyal following as a bitcoin proxy. Lately, though, they have lost some luster: As spot bitcoin funds got bigger and crypto businesses proliferated on major exchanges, giving traders more ways to play crypto, the stock started to slide and investors fretted that the company would be driven to sell its bitcoin for the first time. Pullbacks in crypto markets and worries that the stock could be removed from some indexes have Strategy—and Saylor—under some fire.
So what’s their move? Saylor, the company’s executive chairman, has revamped his pitch about the company, which he now calls a “capital markets platform.” That might help revive a stock down more than 45% year-to-date, far further than the roughly 6% drop in bitcoin over the same period.
“What we’re building goes beyond bitcoin exposure,” Saylor told Investopedia Monday. “It’s a capital markets platform: Digital Money built on Digital Credit, secured by Digital Capital. That’s not something an ETF or a fund structure can replicate.”
Why This Matters to Crypto Investors
Though Strategy has taken a major hit, the company’s stock has outperformed the S&P 500 since it announced its first bitcoin purchase in August 2020, rising more than 1200% compared to the benchmark’s 105% gain. Now its principal public spokesman is looking to attract a new set of investors to the story and the shjares.
Saylor was referencing Strategy’s variable rate series A perpetual stretch preferred shares (STRC), which raised about $2.5 billion and was used to buy bitcoin this summer. Strategy has issued securities of that ilk throughout 2025; the company, through stock sales, has built up its U.S.-dollar reserves to $2.2 billion.
That marks a partial pivot from past positioning of Strategy—formerly MicroStrategy—as a leveraged play on bitcoin, and it comes as the company faces several downside risks.
Index provider MSCI in October said that it may soon decide to remove companies whose business models is to buy cryptocurrency because they resemble investment funds, which are not eligible for inclusion in its indexes. JPMorgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou last month estimated that removal from MSCI indexes would result in outflows of $2.8 billion, and almost quadruple that if other major indexes followed suit.
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Some of the slide in Strategy’s shares has been associated with the rise of spot bitcoin ETFs like BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), as well as the launch of options on that fund, which mean investors have other choices for tracking bitcoin. “It’s just not as differentiated as it was before bitcoin ETFs and before liquid IBIT options,” Matt Hougan, CIO at Bitwise Asset Management, said.
Hougan said Strategy’s one major advantage is its more than 670,000 bitcoins, which based on bitcoin’s recent price of around $88,000, would be worth near $60 billion. Its cash reserves, while perhaps confusing to investors who wonder why they weren’t all immediately put to work buying bitcoin, make more sense if the company was aiming to woo new potential investors eyeing the dividends promised by its preferred shares. (The company has said its goal is to have reserves that can cover two years or more of dividends.)
“Strategy intends to increase investor outreach on its preferred strategy,” Citi analyst Peter Christiansen wrote in a November report, which could attract institutional investors and wealth management firms. Citi reiterated its buy rating, what is effectively a bullish stance, and a price target of $485, implying upside of about 200%.