Nobody has been on the receiving end of that score and more than my next guest, the founder
and CEO of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor.
Michael, we have to stop meeting like this, my man.
So the crypto crash has kept your name trending for about a week or so.
The naysayers, their tongues are wagging.
First, I just want to ask about the health of your company because reportedly, there
were going to be all kinds of margin calls, you're down 1.5 billion.
How's MicroStrategy sitting okay?
Everything all right?
We're just fine, Charles.
We've taken the long view.
We've got a 10 year strategy.
We've got a great capital structure, a lot of permanent capital.
So this has been an exciting time, but otherwise we're just motoring through it.
Okay.
Exciting as a euphemism like crazy as hell time, you mean exciting like that?
Look, Bitcoin's gone through three boom and bus cycles in the last two years since we got involved.
So if you're a short term investor, this is a high risk, high beta, high volatility
aspect.
But if you've got a 10 year time view, if you're a long term investor, it looks like
a low-risk store of value assets.
So it all comes down to what's your time horizon and what are you looking for out of the asset?
Let's talk about those some of the things that might have, because of the news, some
of the headlines and some of the reactions, maybe what it could mean for the
evolution of this whole thing, right?
Because every time there was a headline in crypto, Bitcoin of course went lower.
What does it say about the notion of the whole thing being so decentralized and also maybe
your need for some form of regulation?
Well, I think it's an immature asset class that is maturing and I think that any form of
regulation is going to be good, right?
As the SEC, the CFTC, the FASB, the FDIC, as any of them give guidance, the OCC, it's all going
to be good for Bitcoin because, look, there's one number you should keep in mind, 100.
100 is the number of hours that a reasonable person needs to spend to understand how this
network works and why it's special.
And it's 100 times bigger than the next substitute or the next competitor.
So once you understand what it is, if you have a long time horizon, you realize that it's
fairly unique.
And now you're just waiting for the rest of the world to understand what it is.
And many people take their cues from the government like it or not.
And so if the government clarifies the difference between a commodity, a security, a currency,
and how you can use these things, I think that opens up a much easier path for institutional
investors, mainstream investors and corporations to get involved.
So you've been seeing as the sort of pine piper of Bitcoin and some people are suggesting
that maybe you've gone too far that you've been irresponsible for, like for instance,
suggesting people mortgage their homes and businesses.
I want to share a sought a sound bite with you in the audience and then get your feelings
on that.
And if you absolutely love the thing that you don't want to sell it, go mortgage your
house and buy Bitcoin with it.
And if you've got a business that you love because your family works for the business,
it's in your family for 37 years, and you can't bear to sell it, mortgage it, finance
it and convert the proceeds into the hardest money on earth, which is Bitcoin.
So there are people I respect who say you'd go too far with those kind of proclamations.
What do you say?
Well, you know, the critics always cherry-picked and they beat up on you at certain times.
But if we step back, the Argentine peso lost 99.5% of its value over 20 years.
And the only way you could survive is by going into debt and converting into a different
currency.
That 30-year mortgage, you could get one for 275 basis points a year ago.
Right now it's 580 basis points.
So telling someone to take a 30-year mortgage when you could get one for half the current
price for the rest of their life isn't bad financial advice.
It's a lost opportunity if you didn't get that cheap money.
Long-term government subsidized debts a reasonably good thing.
If you step back and look at the big picture from first principles, like Bitcoin's up 52%
on average per year for the past two years.
For the last five years, it's a 51% AR.
For the past 10 years, it's a hundred and twenty-fourth percent AR.
And that's 10X better than Nasdaq over the past two years.
So there's no statutes to critics.
I think that the critics need to give people a solution to their problem.
I think if the inflation rate is higher than the interest rate, you would rather be a
debtor than a creditor.
And a person's just got to take a long view, look out over the decade, and ask them
self, you know, how do I want to be positioned financially?
And if you can do that, there are opportunities.
The bottom line I always say, Michael, is that you have put your money where your mouth
is.
So there's a lot of cheerleaders out there.
A lot of folks have pop-poms.
You have the ultimate skin in a game.
I appreciate you taking in time with us as well.
Thank you so much, my friend.
Yeah, thanks for having me, Charles.
All right, see you soon.