Michael Saylor: the man who turned a company into a bitcoin bank
Founder of MicroStrategy (now Strategy). Lost billions on paper in the 2000 dot-com crash, called bitcoin doomed in 2013, then in August 2020 bet his company on it. Today Strategy holds more bitcoin than any other company, and Saylor is the loudest bitcoin voice on X.
$64.0B spent in total · Strategy, as of 2026-10-05
Worth today
$71.1B
at BTC $83,790 (Coinbase spot)
Price vs average cost
+11.1%
Before debt, preferred stock and fees. Not a profit figure.
Every purchase report since August 2020
122 reports · ● buy ● sale
10 Aug 2020 · first buy: 21,454 BTC at $11,652, $250M
21 Jun 2021 · passed 100,000 BTC (total 105,084)
11 Mar 2024 · passed 200,000 BTC (total 205,000)
18 Nov 2024 · passed 300,000 BTC (total 331,200)
2 Dec 2024 · passed 400,000 BTC (total 402,100)
24 Mar 2025 · passed 500,000 BTC (total 506,137)
14 Jul 2025 · passed 600,000 BTC (total 601,550)
20 Jan 2026 · passed 700,000 BTC (total 709,715)
20 Apr 2026 · passed 800,000 BTC (total 815,061)
25 Nov 2024 · largest buy: 55,500 BTC for $5,400M
About the sales: in reports from 1 Jun 2026 to 10 Aug 2026 Strategy showed 5 net sales, 6,948 BTC in total. It went back to buying on 31 Aug 2026. The “never sells” meme →
Purchases, average prices and cost come from Strategy's own ledger strategy.com/purchases and its weekly 8-K filings with the SEC. New 8-Ks are picked up automatically every 6 hours (last checked 2026-10-11 17:58 UTC); a Saylor purchase post adds a preliminary row until the 8-K replaces it. The total held above is live from bitcointreasuries.net. Dates are report dates (usually a Monday), not trade dates.
Born 4 February 1965 in Lincoln, Nebraska, grew up on US Air Force bases, studied at MIT on an Air Force ROTC scholarship (aeronautics and the history of science).
MicroStrategy restates two years of results; the stock, which had climbed as high as $333, falls 62% in a single day to about $120, one of the moments that marked the end of the dot-com bubble. Saylor's net worth drops by about $6 billion. In December 2000 he settles with the SEC without admitting wrongdoing ($350,000 penalty, $8.3 million disgorgement).
On 11 August 2020 MicroStrategy adopts bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset, after buying 21,454 BTC for $250 million. More buys follow, then convertible bonds and new shares sold to buy more.
In August 2022 he hands the CEO job to Phong Le and becomes executive chairman to focus on the bitcoin strategy. On 5 February 2025 MicroStrategy starts doing business as Strategy, with an orange ₿ logo.
In June–August 2026 Strategy reports net bitcoin sales for the first time (32 BTC in late May to fund preferred-stock dividends, then larger amounts), before returning to net buying from late August. Saylor says he personally has never sold.
Text is verbatim from X; t.co links point to the media or sites in the post. Refreshed daily.
Quotes, word for word
13 quotes, each linked to the original. 12 link the post itself, 1 is as reported by the press.
“#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.”
— Michael Saylor,
His most famous line. He shortened it to “a swarm of cyber hornets” many times since.
“When I say “Never Sell Your Bitcoin,” I speak as one saver to another. I have never sold mine. Not one satoshi. Strategy is a public company, not my wallet. Since 2020, it has disclosed it may buy or sell $BTC to manage capital. Our shared conviction in Bitcoin remains unchanged.”
— Michael Saylor,
Written after Strategy's first net bitcoin sales in summer 2026.
“We'll probably sell some Bitcoin to fund a dividend just to inoculate the market—just to send the message that we did it.”
— Michael Saylor, , earnings callas reported
Spoken on Strategy's Q1 2026 earnings call (5 May 2026, 5 pm ET). The words are as reported by Decrypt; he did not post them as text. The two @saylor links are his own posts with the call and his recap; we have not checked the recording itself.
“Some have asked how much #BTC I own. I personally #hodl 17,732 BTC which I bought at $9,882 each on average. I informed MicroStrategy of these holdings before the company decided to buy #bitcoin for itself.”
When the laser-eyes trend took over Bitcoin Twitter in February 2021, Saylor became its most famous face. On 1 April 2021 he wrote “If you don't understand laser eyes, then you don't understand #Bitcoin.”, and on 10 May 2021 he posted a laser-eyed profile picture with a three-sentence manifesto (“Laser eyes proclaim a technology to guarantee the human rights of life, liberty, & property…”). The deal was to keep the lasers until bitcoin hit $100,000, which happened on 5 December 2024.
Three words first posted on 1 June 2021 that became his closing line for years, with endless variations: hope for Argentina, for Turkey, for Japan, even “hope for Berkshire Hathaway”. In June 2026 he still listed it among his beliefs: “Bitcoin is hope and economic empowerment for everyone.”
Almost every Sunday Saylor posts the chart of Strategy's purchases (orange dots, one per buy) with a cryptic caption. For a long time a Sunday chart meant a Monday filing with a new purchase, so traders watch it like a weather forecast. In 2026 the link weakened: a July post (“We're gonna need another color”) came after four weeks without a buy. Today's caption, 11 October 2026: “There’s always room for more orange.” Whether Monday brings a buy is only known from the company's filing.
Fans sum up his approach as “I'm buying more”. We did not find a post with exactly those words, so here are the real ones: “I'm going to be buying the top forever.” (3 July 2025) and “Thinking about buying more bitcoin.” (22 January 2026, 1.6 million views).
The meme is half true. Saylor posts “Never sell your Bitcoin.” and says he personally has never sold a satoshi. His company is different: MicroStrategy sold 704 BTC in December 2022 for a tax loss (and bought back more), and in June–August 2026 Strategy reported its first net sales, the largest, 2,225 BTC, reported on 6 July. On 1 August 2026 Saylor wrote: “We have never had a ‘never sell’ policy.” Since late August Strategy is a net buyer again.
This page is about a public figure and a public company. It is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy MSTR or bitcoin. The kidney quote is a joke.
21 BTC