Bitcoin world is on a non-stop prepare to be amazed journey. These recent months, recent weeks, recent days have been anything but uneventful in bitcoin world. Today bitcoin made another all time high of $95k. There is plenty more action to except in bitcoin's price. But there is even more to expect in the world of bitcoin adoption by not only ordinary people, but players with much deeper pockets like big companies and sovereign funds. Recently, Microsoft announced that they will be holding a shareholder voting in December to wether adopt bitcoin strategy or not for the company. Microsoft is a huge company, and one of the big players in tech. It makes perfect sense that companies like Microsoft would get involved in bitcoin long time ago. This hasn't happened yet. But it seems there are investors in Microsoft that would like to see a change of direction regarding bitcoin as a treasury strategy. Blackrock is the second largest shareholder in Microsoft, and most like the one who is pushing for bitcoin strategy for the company. Microsoft board have already stated their position that they are not interested in bitcoin and do not believe it is a good thing for Microsoft. Board already recommends against bitcoin strategy. We will see who the shareholders will listen to.
It has been reported that Michael Saylor will be presenting the case for bitcoin strategy to the Microsoft board before the shareholders vote on this matter on December 10, 2024. This is awesome. Michael Saylor is the perfect person for this job. He is so obsessed with bitcoin, have studied everything about it including any potential risks, have successfully implemented the bitcoin strategy for his company, and just super articulate speaker. Not only he is brilliant and articulate, he is very honest and transparent about everything he talks about. I have know about bitcoin even before Michael Saylor discovered it, but yet didn't understand many aspects of it. Saylor talks and interviews made bitcoin more understandable in simple terms from the technological and monetary points of view. I am sure he would be able to deliver the message of bitcoin and its benefits to Microsoft better than anybody else. Perhaps, Satoshi is the only one who would do a better job than Saylor in explaining it.
Ever since Saylor took the bitcoin journey, and adopted the bitcoin strategy for MicroStrategy, he has become one of the main public spokespersons for bitcoin. He loves to do that. If it was anybody else, they probably wouldn't care about educating others about bitcoin and bitcoin strategy. It is a lot of work. Who cares what others think as long as it works for my company? probably would be the thoughts for any other executive in place of Saylor. It may seem like Saylor is eager to speak to Microsoft. He kinda is. But for not the reasons skeptics would expect. One of the main reasons we would automatically assume Saylor would want to do this would be to make sure his strategy continues to work and bitcoin prices keep going up. Convincing a tech giant like Microsoft would do the trick. However, the way I see it, Microsoft needs Saylor. Not the other way around. Saylor doesn't need to prove anything to anybody. He had a brilliant idea for his company. He implemented it perfectly. Now $MSTR is the best performing asset in recent years, and has outperformed all other assets including $MSFT.
Saylor is not done with his strategy for MicroStrategy yet. Recently, MicroStrategy announced their goal to acquire $42 billion worth more bitcoins in the next 3 years. It didn't take them too long to start buying more bitcoins under this plan. A couple of weeks ago they bought $2 billion worth. A week or so ago they bought $4 billion worth bitcoins. In just these recent weeks they managed to add 50,000+ more bitcoins to their treasury. That is impressive. We know they are not stopping here, regardless tech giants like Microsoft or others decide to participate in bitcoin. It doesn't matter. MicroStrategy has a long term goal and bitcoin will continue benefitting the company and its shareholders. Of course there will be times when bitcoin price trend will reverse and we may see huge price drops. But this isn't a problem for long term hodlers. Because we know bitcoin always returns to its previous all time high price given enough time. And it makes new all time highs afterwards. So, MicroStrategy will be fine for decades to come. The question of bitcoin strategy seems a very simple one. If a company has a lot of cash, holding this cash in fiat doesn't do any good for the company. By converting this cash into bitcoin at the very least these companies will manage to preserve the original value. That is how it all started for MicroStrategy. Microsoft does not need to go crazy with bitcoin like Saylor and MicroStrategy and start buying bitcoin with issues more stocks, bonds, or borrowing money. Simply converting their cash into bitcoin should be good enough for them. And doing so wouldn't be risky. History has shown time and a time again that bitcoin's ability to preserve wealth is much higher than fiat or other traditional assets.
Having seen many of Saylor's talks and speeches, I am convinced he will be able to make a perfect and convincing pitch to a reasonable crowd. The problem with this setup is that Saylor will be making the pitch to the Microsoft's board which already have made up its mind, and most likely for political reasons. Board have already recommended against adopting bitcoin strategy. This shareholders vote on this matter will be despite of board's objections. I doubt Microsoft board or boards of many other company have companies best interests. There are conflicts and power struggles involved, I would guess. If the board was genuine and open minded maybe they wouldn't have to reach a conclusion on this topic yet. While this presentation will be to the Microsoft's board the intended audience will be the shareholders. It is like a president making a speech to Congress, but mainly addressing the nation. It doesn't matter if board will be convinced or not, the question is how many of the shareholders can Saylor win over. It seems like there is genuine interest among Microsoft's shareholders to adopt bitcoin strategy. However, it may be too early. There may be a lot of shareholders like Warren Buffet who are stuck with their old ways of investment and take strong opposition to new investment strategies like bitcoin.
Regardless what happens with the Microsoft shareholders vote on bitcoin strategy, this is a good step in the right direction. Even if Microsoft votes no, and find bitcoin is not the right fit for their long term strategy, this may pave the way for other companies to consider similar kind of voting and let shareholders decide. If this vote is held in 3-4 years time I believe the vote would be Yes overwhelmingly. Unfortunately, this may end up being lost time and lost value for the company and its shareholders. With or without Microsoft, bitcoin journey will continue. There will be plenty of companies adopting similar strategies.
Another interesting thing about Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy, and Microsoft is that I think when Saylor founded MicroStrategy he was inspired by Microsoft. If you look at the naming of the company there are similarities. Also, initials for the MicroStrategy and Michael Saylor would be the same. MS from MS will be talking to MS board about bitcoin in December. It will interesting to watch. I can't wait to see what MS will come up with to convince other MS.
Read my previous posts on the topic:
- Microsoft Shareholders Will Be Voting On Bitcoin Strategy In December 2024
- MicroStrategy Wants $42 Billion Worth More Bitcoin