MicroStrategy’s Saylor To Step Down as CEO To Double Down on Buying Bitcoin

The company’s president, Phong Le, is set to assume the chief executive role as Saylor becomes executive chairman

article-image

MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor | Source: Michael.com

share

key takeaways

  • MicroStrategy held 129,699 bitcoins — about $2 billion — as of June 30, which reflects cumulative impairment losses of roughly $2 billion since acquisition
  • The company’s core business is “not impacted by the near-term price fluctuations of bitcoin,” Le says

Michael Saylor is stepping down from his long running role as MicroStrategy’s chief executive. 

Saylor is set to become the company’s executive chairman, a move company executives said would allow the outspoken Bitcoin bull to focus more on the firm’s bitcoin acquisition strategy. 

Saylor has served as CEO and chairman of MicroStrategy’s board since founding the company in 1989. He took it public in 1998. Phong Le, president of the Virginia-based business intelligence firm since July 2020, will become MicroStrategy’s CEO on Aug. 8.

Saylor said during the company’s earnings call on Tuesday that the matter of CEO succession has been “carefully considered and planned for at the board level for many years.”

Le called the leadership reshuffling a “business-as-usual transition,” noting that he doesn’t plan on making any significant changes to the company.

“I believe that splitting the roles of chairman and CEO will enable us to better pursue our two corporate strategies of acquiring and holding bitcoin and growing our enterprise analytics software business,” Saylor said in a statement. 

Since joining MicroStrategy in 2015, Le has also worked as the firm’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer. 

“We continue to see the durability of our enterprise analytics business and the attractiveness of our cloud platform in our results this past quarter,” Le said in a statement. “With total revenue growth on a constant currency basis, and 36% year-over-year growth in subscription services revenues, our business remains resilient even in light of the continuing macroeconomic uncertainties.”

MicroStrategy has the largest bitcoin (BTC) stash of any public company. It held 129,699 BTC — worth about $2 billion — as of June 30, which reflects cumulative losses of roughly $2 billion.

As volatility ramped up in June, MicroStrategy purchased an additional 480 bitcoin (BTC) for roughly $10 million — an average price of $20,817 per bitcoin.

MicroStrategy reported a net loss for the second quarter of nearly $1.1 billion, due in part to digital asset impairment charges of $918 million.

Saylor said on the call that since Aug. 11, 2020 — the day the company announced the start of its bitcoin acquisition strategy — MicroStrategy’s stock and bitcoin are up 123% and 94%, respectively.

“We seek to acquire and hold bitcoin long-term and we do not currently plan to engage in sales of bitcoin,” Le added. “We have a long-term time horizon, and the core business is not impacted by the near-term price fluctuations of bitcoin.”

The company’s declaration to continue to buy and hold bitcoin comes after Tesla sold roughly 75% of its bitcoin in the second quarter as part of conversions that added $936 million to its balance sheet. 

MicroStrategy’s stock price closed Tuesday at $278.26. The stock is down about 50% year to date, but up 48% in the past month.

This is a developing story.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (1).jpg

Research

Jupiter has emerged as the undisputed liquidity backbone of Solana, commanding over 90% of spot DEX aggregation and 80% of perp trading volume. But behind the numbers lies a far more ambitious play: a cross-chain, vertically integrated super-app spanning swaps, synthetics, NFTs, memecoins, and launchpads. This report explores Jupiter’s rapid rise, the monetization upgrades reshaping its revenue profile, and the risks that could unwind its dominance, from token dilution to competition. With annualized revenues nearing $300M, the upside is undeniable, if it can navigate the turbulence.

article-image

Curve founder Michael Egorov is working on a new protocol designed to eliminate impermanent loss, rethink token emissions, and capture BTC-native yield

article-image

Mining outfits have gone bust in the wake of prior halvings. Not so this time around.

article-image

Zora’s announcement that its token is for “fun only” sparked a debate about the need for such tokens

article-image

In recent weeks, Helium has hit new all-time highs while passing major protocol milestones

article-image

Financial advisers in a January survey said equity ETFs were their top choice for gaining crypto exposure in 2025

article-image

“Why put a target out there that’s really speculative, not knowing exactly where this environment is going to go?” CarMax CEO Bill Nash said