MicroStrategy Stock Has Outperformed Bitcoin. Here's Why

MicroStrategy has been riding Bitcoin, for better or worse, after cofounder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor hitched the software company's fortunes

MicroStrategy has been riding Bitcoin, for better or worse, after cofounder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor hitched the software company’s fortunes to the cryptocurrency in 2020.

Lately, his bet has proved extravagantly lucrative. For the year to date, MicroStrategy stock is up 513%—and that’s even after shares have come off a post-election high that briefly put them up nearly 700%.

Either way, that’s well above Bitcoin’s 2024 gain of about 117%. In fact, MicroStrategy’s market cap of $87 billion is more than double the value of its holdings of 386,700 Bitcoins, which are worth $37.6 billion at current prices (and largely purchased at a fraction of the going rate).

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Saylor explained why there is such a big gap between MicroStrategy stock and Bitcoin.

“MicroStrategy found a way to outperform Bitcoin,” he said. “The way that we outperform Bitcoin, in essence, is we just lever up Bitcoin.”

The company has been an aggressive buyer of Bitcoin and hasn’t been shy about raising fresh funds via stock or debt to buy even more. Last month, it upsized a convertible notes offering to add to its buying firepower.

That’s part of a bold plan to raise $42 billion from stock and bond offerings over three years to keep buying Bitcoins, according to the Journal.

There are skeptics to be sure. Last month, Citron Research said it was bullish on Bitcoin but was shorting MicroStrategy even as it complimented Saylor on his “visionary” strategy.

“Much respect to @saylor, but even he must know $MSTR is overheated,” Citron posted on X.

But wherever MicroStrategy stock or Bitcoin go from here, Saylor embraces volatility and isn’t afraid to stick his neck out. Even before the Bitcoin boom, he once lost $6 billion in a single day during the dot-com bust.

And while recalling how he came up with his Bitcoin strategy in 2020, Saylor told the Journal that “It was either a fast death or a slow death, or take a risk, do something out of the box.”