Michael Saylor, the founder of MicroStrategy, recently opened up about how the chaos caused by COVID-19 and the U.S. government’s economic response pushed him to invest in Bitcoin in 2020.
In a conversation with Jordan B. Peterson aired on Monday, Saylor explained that his interest in Bitcoin was sparked during a time he described as a “currency war,” triggered by global lockdowns and rock-bottom interest rates in the U.S.
“It wasn’t just a fight against the virus — it was a battle over the future of money,” he said.
At the time, Saylor had sent an internal message to his team expressing his frustration with the restrictive measures, calling them “soul-crushing” and “economically paralyzing.” He reflected on 2020 as a time when everyday businesses and workers were devastated, while large financial institutions and investors thrived.
With MicroStrategy sitting on $500 million in cash but unable to earn interest due to central bank policies, Saylor said he faced a difficult choice. “Cash wasn’t generating anything. Central banks were flooding the system with money and driving rates down.”
The Impact of Easy Money
He noted how stock markets quickly bounced back during the pandemic thanks to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive stimulus. “It was a financial distortion,” he said, adding that this caused asset prices to inflate, enriching institutional investors.
“I had a pile of cash that was basically dying. My options were a fast or slow decline in value. I had to choose.”
Turning Point
After decades of building up MicroStrategy’s reserves, Saylor didn’t want to see that value eroded. He began looking into alternatives but found real estate and stocks already overpriced. Art was too illiquid and impractical.
“What I needed was something that could preserve my economic energy — something liquid, durable, and independent of government control.”
Enter Bitcoin
He turned to his longtime friend Eric Weiss of Blockchain Investment Group to learn more about crypto — something he had previously dismissed as a “scam” during the 2018 bear market.
After diving into books, podcasts, and online content, Saylor concluded that Bitcoin was the modern version of gold — a decentralized, sovereign-free asset capable of protecting long-term value.
In August 2020, MicroStrategy made its first major Bitcoin investment, purchasing 21,454 BTC for $250 million. As of now, the company holds around 582,000 BTC, worth roughly $63 billion, making it the largest public corporate holder of the cryptocurrency, per Saylor Tracker.
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