Despite worries in the cryptoverse that the US-based software firm MicroStrategy might not be such a strong holder of bitcoin (BTC) as many had hoped, the company’s CEO said that he has been misrepresented by the media, and that he has no intention of selling bitcoin “on short notice.”
The confusion regarding what MicroStrategy CEO & co-founder Michael Saylor’s plan with his company’s BTC holdings started after an interview the software entrepreneur did with Bloomberg, where he stressed how liquid bitcoin is as an investment. “We can liquidate it any day of the week, any hour of the day,” Saylor was quoted as saying, while the report added that he would not hesitate to do this if better opportunities were to arise, such as a jump in bond yields.
“If I needed to liquidate USD 200 million of bitcoin, I believe I could do it on a Saturday. If I took a haircut, I believe it would be 2%,” the CEO said.
Following the Bloomberg interview, Saylor was paraphrased by some crypto news outlets as saying that his firm could ‘liquidate USD 200m in bitcoin on a Saturday,’ implying that he is not a long-term holder and instead stands ready to sell at a moment’s notice.
However, Saylor himself later pushed back at this narrative, saying on Twitter that the headline is “a misrepresentation” of what he said.
“I merely indicated that Bitcoin is to be preferred as a treasury asset because it is so liquid. I never suggested an intent to trade it for other assets on short notice,” the CEO explained.
Further in the Bloomberg interview, however, Saylor also said that BTC is the best asset to be invested in, calling it “the only thing we can find with a positive real yield.”
And according to the CEO, who co-founded MicroStrategy as a 24-year-old in 1989, most of the company’s largest shareholders were “very supportive and complimentary” about the untraditional move to invest in the digital asset.
Moreover, Saylor explained that although MicroStrategy is the first major non-crypto company to invest treasury reserves in bitcoin, he does not believe it will be the last. “It will probably be private companies first, because they don’t have as much inertia,” Saylor said, adding that the next ones will be “public companies our size, then mid-sized companies.”
“We feel pretty confident that bitcoin is less risky than holding cash, less risky than holding gold,” the CEO said, likening his company’s earlier US dollar reserves to “a USD 500 million melting ice cube.”
At pixel time (09:07 UTC), BTC trades at USD 10,479 and is unchanged in a day. The price is down by almost 4% in a week.