Bitcoin is at its lowest level in a year and a half, and his company’s major crypto bet is underwater, but that doesn’t mean Michael Saylor’s faith in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency has waned.
Saylor, the CEO of MicroStrategy, a business software company, and a notorious Bitcoin supporter, changed his Twitter profile pic on Monday afternoon to a picture of himself with lasers coming out of his eyes. Self-portraits with laser eyes are a sign in the crypto world that you support Bitcoin. Saylor published the new profile picture just hours after he tweeted “In #Bitcoin We Trust,” doubling down on his support for the coin.
The laser eyes symbol that Saylor incorporated into his profile picture started in online Bitcoin communities but has spread to the mainstream. Several other vocal Bitcoin supporters have added laser eyes to their profile pictures in the past to show their support of the cryptocurrency.
When El Salvador’s congress approved President Nayib Bukele’s proposal last year to make the cryptocurrency legal tender, Bukele added laser eyes to his profile picture. Crypto-supporting politicians, including Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) have also donned laser eyes in their past Twitter profile pictures.
Despite his loyalty to the cryptocurrency, Saylor has plenty of reasons to worry about the current crypto downturn.
Bitcoin is trading at its lowest level since December 2020 and briefly hit the $22,960 mark on Monday. At that price, MicroStrategy had an unrealized loss of more than $1 billion, as it holds vast amounts of the cryptocurrency. As of 2 p.m. on Monday afternoon, the cryptocurrency was trading just above that level, at $23,500, putting the company’s unrealized loss at still more than $900 million. MicroStrategy’s stock was down 21% on Monday afternoon at $160 per share as a broad selloff hit equities, especially affecting those companies associated with crypto.
A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that the company had 129,218 Bitcoins as of March 31, acquired for $3.97 billion, or $30,700 per coin, Fortune reported previously. Those 129,218 Bitcoin tokens are worth about $3.03 billion based on Bitcoin’s price of about $23,500 as of Monday afternoon.
If the price of Bitcoin drops below $21,000, MicroStrategy will also face a margin call and have to put up more Bitcoin collateral for a $205 million loan it received in March from Silvergate Bank, Fortune reported last month. MicroStrategy’s chief financial officer Phong Le said in the company’s first-quarter earnings call that MicroStrategy has “quite a bit” of uncollateralized Bitcoin it could put up in case of a margin call.
Saylor and MicroStrategy did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
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