Bitcoin Maverick Michael Saylor Drops CEO Role At MicroStrategy After Reporting $1 Billion Loss

One of the biggest Bitcoin proponents Michael Saylor has stepped down from the position of CEO of his business intelligence firm MicroStrategy. The announcement came on Tuesday, August 2, as the company reported a second-quarter loss of around $1 billion.

Of these, a $917.8 million loss was in the form of impairment charges due to the decline in the price of Bitcoin. As of June 30, MicroStrategy reported that they were holding 129,699 Bitcoins worth $1.988 billion. The company has been accumulating Bitcoins since the summer of 2020.

However, Saylor will now serve as the executive chairman of MicroStrategy. He said that he will now put his exclusive focus on hoarding cryptocurrencies. In a statement on Tuesday, Saylor said:

“As Executive Chairman I will be able to focus more on our bitcoin acquisition strategy and related bitcoin advocacy initiatives, while Phong will be empowered as CEO to manage overall corporate operations.”

Short Bets On MicroStrategy Surge

Following the Bitcoin correction this year, the stock of MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) has come under severe pressure. Although crypto proponents have been backing Saylor’s Bitcoin bet, some Wall Street analysts don’t see it as a strong move for a public listed company.

As per the latest Bloomberg report, short bets on MicroStrategy have been piling up recently. The MSTR stock has seen a partial rebound along with the BTC price last month in July. However, some skeptics believe that this could quickly flame out. As per the Bloomberg report,

“A record 51% of MicroStrategy’s available shares are currently sold short, carrying a notional value of $1.35 billion, according to financial analytics firm S3 Partners. The all-time high of 4.73 million shares shorted has soared by 1.2 million shares over the past 30 days alone, S3 says”.

However, if the BTC price manages to recover from here, it could also drive the MSTR stock price higher. As of press time, Bitcoin is trading at $22,865 with a market cap of $436 billion.