Well, Bitcoin pulling back today, but it's on a massive run since the election, topping $93,000 yesterday.
That was a record high. That has lifted Bitcoin and adjacent stocks as well, including
MicroStrategy, which revealed it bought more than 27,000 Bitcoins over the past two weeks.
Shares of MicroStrategy hit an all-time high yesterday as well. Joining us now in an exclusive
interview is Michael Sayler, co-founder and executive chairman at MicroStrategy. He is joining
us from the Cantor Crypto Digital Assets and AI Infrastructure Conference in Miami. Michael,
it's great to have you on the show.
Yeah, thanks for hosting me, Morgan.
So, I'm going to start right there. The Torrid Run we've seen in Bitcoin. Is this all
just anticipation about what a Trump administration is going to mean for it?
You know, the red wave is probably the biggest thing that's happened in the past four years
for Bitcoin. It's incredibly auspicious for Bitcoin and for the entire crypto industry.
But we're also getting a lot of very constructive support from Wall Street. BlackRock has been
a very, very strong voice articulating the Bitcoin value proposition. And of course,
MicroStrategy on October 30th announced that we were going to raise $42 billion to buy
Bitcoin. And that's the same as saying we're going to buy every Bitcoin mine for the next
three years at $85,000 or more Bitcoin. So, there's a lot of bullish things going on
in the market right now.
And I do want to get to that audacious $42 billion fundraising plan of yours. But first,
there's a lot of regulation and regulatory aspects that are in focus with the Trump administration
coming into play. SEC Chairman, for example, a lot of expectations that Gary Gensler is
going to step aside. And I realize Bitcoin itself is governed as a commodity unlike other
cryptocurrencies. But when you're talking about the ETFs and when you're talking about
the cryptocurrency exchanges and when you're talking about companies like yours, MicroStrategy,
which is publicly traded, it is SEC. So, how important is that appointment going to be?
And who would you like to see at the helm?
Well, I think whoever chairs the SEC has probably the most pivotal role in the entire digital
assets industry. I think this is incredibly bullish for digital assets. It's very good
for the crypto industry. We're going to see a lot more pro Bitcoin policies. We're going
to see a digital assets framework. We're going to see it into the war and crypto. We're
going to see a lot of pro Bitcoin, sorry, pro business policies. And I think that clearly
the SEC will be a big part of it. So, it's above my pay grade to have an opinion on who
is going to be. But I think it's pretty clear the House, the Senate, the White House,
they're all very pro crypto. So, I expect they will have a very supportive head of the
SEC. Michael, as well as you've done buying Bitcoin,
I'm not sure anything is really above your pay grade at this point, which leads you
to the question, what do you think is the biggest threat to Bitcoin's price staying above
60K? What potentially causes another dive below 30K?
Yeah, I don't think it's going to 60K. It's not going to 30K. I think it's going to go
up from here. I'm planning the 100K party and I'm thinking it's probably going to be
New Year's Eve at my house. So, I would be surprised if we don't go through 100K in November
or December. So, then what's the biggest threat to it going lower even if it doesn't get
that low? I think the biggest uncertainty in the industry was November 5th. And would
you have a blue wave, would you have a red wave, or would you have a split Congress, and
would you have any dispute about the future of crypto assets in Bitcoin? I think that
was settled by the people very decidedly on November 5th, and I don't really see any
threats in the near-term horizon. A strategic Bitcoin reserve, how likely is it that that
is actually established? And why would that be a good thing when you're talking about
a decentralized asset now being stockpiled by a centralized government?
Well, that's being sponsored by Senator Lomas from Wyoming, and she understands the value
of the frontier. The United States was built by purchasing Manhattan, then we purchased
the Louisiana territory, then we purchased California and acquired Texas, and then we
bought Alaska. The next great frontier is cyberspace, and the obvious thing to do is to
own cyberspace by the future. And so, I think it's a great idea, I think it will happen,
and I think it's important to the United States because it's immense, the United States
control over the future world reserve capital network. Senator Lomas' bill will offset $16
trillion of our debt according to my models right now. So, I think it's economically wise,
it's technically wise, and again, Bitcoin has manifest destiny for the United States.
So with your most recent acquisition of 27,200 Bitcoins, it looks like you now based
on my calculations, own about 1% of the Bitcoin supply. You just talked about this 42
billion dollar fundraising plan, this would be a record breaking plan. Half of it at the
market equity offerings, and half of it in new debt securities, how will you carry this
out, and why is now the time to go to market with something like this?
Well, all of our investors tell me they want me to buy more Bitcoin, they want me to raise
capital to buy Bitcoin, and their number one concern was, are you going to stop issuing
equity to buy Bitcoin? And so, we were actually addressing their concerns. We did raise
$2 billion to buy 27,000 Bitcoin just in the first 10 days of November. So we're moving
fairly aggressively on it. I think our exact rate will be a function of the capital markets,
but right now they've been very enthusiastic. So, our plan is two, three years, but it's
possible we'll do it much before then. Okay, Michael Seller of MicroStrategy, great
to have you on. Thank you. Thank you, Morgan.