MicroStrategy co-founder Saylor to sell $216 million worth of company shares

Quick Take

  • Saylor said in November that he plans to sell some shares to address personal obligations and buy additional bitcoin personally.
  • MicroStrategy continues to be the largest holder of Bitcoin among publicly traded firms.

Michael Saylor, co-founder of U.S.-based business intelligence firm MicroStrategy Inc., is selling 315,000 company shares worth nearly $216 million, according to a filing on Tuesday.  

Saylor previously said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call of 2023 that he plans to use the funds to purchase more bitcoin personally, as well as to address “financial obligations.”

“I was granted a stock option in 2014 with respect to 400,000 shares, which is going to expire next April,” Saylor detailed in the call in November, adding that he plans to sell 5,000 shares per trading day between Jan. 2 and April 25.

Microstrategy shares have risen 21.65% in the past month, and closed up 8.48% at $685.15 on Tuesday.

The company continues to be the largest listed corporate holder of bitcoin. It has racked up 189,150 BTC ($8.55 billion at current prices) after its last purchase of 14,620 BTC in December. 

Bitcoin edged up 0.4% over the past 24 hours to trade at $45,182 at 9:30 a.m. Hong Kong time on Wednesday, according to The Block data. The world’s largest crypto by market capitalization surged past $45,000 — the highest level since April 2022 — on Tuesday.


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About Author

Danny Park is an East Asia reporter at The Block writing on topics including Web3 developments and crypto regulations in the region. He was formerly a reporter at Forkast.News, where he actively covered the downfall of Terra-Luna and FTX. Based in Seoul, Danny has previously produced written and video content for media companies in Korea, Hong Kong and China. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism and Business Marketing from the University of Hong Kong.

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