Bitcoin, to put it mildly, let alone the crypto space as a whole, has had a very rough year.
After the June crash sent Bitcoin to an all-time low of $20,000 (an all-time high of $69,044.77 in November 2021), large cryptocurrency investors began pulling out, including Meta’s META Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla (Tesla) – Get the Tesla Inc report CEO Elon Musk.
Prominent cryptocurrency lenders, such as Celsius Network, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 13, and Voyager Digital, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 6, collapsed in the drop.
Other big crypto believers have also been hit hard.One of them, billionaire and CEO of MicroStrategy (MSTR) – Get the MicroStrategy Incorporated report Michael Saylor has long been an evangelist in the field, regularly sharing his beliefs and philosophical views on the future of digital currency with his 2.6 million followers on Twitter.
But when Saylor lost $1.2 billion in the crash, his faith in Bitcoin’s power was eye-opening, and now, after 33 years as CEO of MicroStrategy, he’s about to step down.
Image source: Twitter.
Saylor takes on new role at MicroStrategy
In an Aug. 2 press release, MicroStrategy announced that Saylor would be stepping down, to be succeeded by company president Phong Le on Aug. 8.
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Le has been President since July 2020 and has held executive positions at MicroStrategy including CFO and COO since 2015.
Saylor will remain part of the company, however. His new title will be executive chairman, and he will retain his role as chairman of the board and remain an executive officer of the company.
“I believe that separating the roles of chairman and CEO will allow us to better pursue our two corporate strategies of acquiring and holding bitcoin and growing our enterprise analytics software business. As executive chairman, I Will be able to focus more on our Bitcoin acquisition strategy and related Bitcoin advocacy program, while Phong will be empowered as CEO to manage overall company operations,” Mr Saylor said.
King of Bitcoin, abdicate?
While Saylor has a lot of followers on Twitter, his most outspoken platform, he also has a following who think he’s crazy when he sees his stance on Bitcoin.
Some of the latter used the announcement to make fun of Thaler.
Meanwhile, Saylor acted as if nothing was amiss, tweeting more or less in his usual way.
TheStreet’s Luc Olinga predicts Saylor’s faith in Bitcoin will push him to face liquidation, especially given his seemingly unwavering support for digital currencies in the past.
Shares of MicroStrategy have plunged since the start of the crypto winter, down 51% since the start of 2022.
