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Michael Saylor once told people to mortgage their home to buy Bitcoin—now the cryptocurrency is down so much he’s wants them to harvest a kidney

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
By
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
Reporter
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Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
By
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
Reporter
Down Arrow Button Icon
February 28, 2025, 1:56 PM ET
Michael Saylor is the founder and executive chairman of newly renamed Strategy.
Michael Saylor is the founder and executive chairman of newly renamed Strategy.Dominic Gwinn—Middle East Images/AFP
  • Michael Saylor, the executive chairman of newly renamed Strategy, told his 4 million followers on social media network X to sell a kidney rather than sell their Bitcoin. Prices for the cryptocurrency have fallen about 13% over the past seven days. 

Michael Saylor, the boisterous Bitcoin evangelist who is also executive chairman of newly renamed Strategy, suggested true believers sell a kidney before offloading his favorite crypto even as prices plummet.

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In a post on X Thursday, Saylor made his position clear.

“Sell a kidney if you must, but keep the Bitcoin,” he wrote.

Saylor’s comment comes as Bitcoin hovered around $84,000 Friday, down 13% over the past seven days.

The controversial post drew plenty of joking replies (and condemnation) from his 4 million followers, but it’s hard to tell if Saylor is serious as it’s not the first time he has suggested taking drastic action on Bitcoin. Previously, Saylor has suggested people mortgage their homes or family businesses and use the money to buy Bitcoin.

Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, has itself been following Saylor’s Bitcoin philosophy. The company has purchased Bitcoin on more than 50 different occasions, often with leverage, since 2020 and the total value of its holdings stood at $41.9 billion as of Friday. 

Strategy has made six multimillion-dollar—and even billion-dollar—Bitcoin purchases since the start of the year. The company also claimed to have added $20.5 billion worth of Bitcoin to its balance sheet in its fourth quarter, its highest-ever quarterly Bitcoin splurge.

Experts have warned that the company is overvalued and that its leveraged Bitcoin purchases could lead to disaster in the future, yet, Saylor is no less enthusiastic about the cryptocurrency. 

The 60-year-old has spent the past few months meeting with crypto-friendly politicians and members of the Trump team, including President Trump’s son, Eric Trump. 

At last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Saylor said establishing a national Bitcoin reserve would strengthen the dollar. Saylor has suggested that the U.S. buy 20% of the Bitcoin supply, which could be worth several hundred billion dollars at current prices. 

To show his ultimate commitment to Bitcoin this month, Saylor’s company rebranded itself to Strategy and incorporated the Bitcoin symbol into its corporate logo.  

“It ties our identity much more closely to Bitcoin and all of the positive aspects of the Bitcoin network in the world,” Saylor said of the rebrand.

Fortune Brainstorm AI returns to San Francisco Dec. 8–9 to convene the smartest people we know—technologists, entrepreneurs, Fortune Global 500 executives, investors, policymakers, and the brilliant minds in between—to explore and interrogate the most pressing questions about AI at another pivotal moment. Register here.
About the Author
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezReporter
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Role: Reporter
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez is a reporter for Fortune covering general business news.

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