MicroStrategy is to Bitcoin as Roger Bannister is to the 4-Minute Mile
Once the barrier is broken, the flood gates open
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Recently, and without warning, a piece of news hit the financial reporting outlets without fanfare or fuss and caused a collective gasp among the cryptocurrency community.
A Nasdaq-listed company, Microstrategy (MSTR) had nonchalantly announced that it had purchased 21,454 bitcoin for $250 million, including all fees and expenses.
From an outsider’s perspective, it did it as casually and calmly as someone getting in from work and announcing that they’d got some gas on the way home. It could easily have been preceded by the words “Oh, by the way …”
I’d heard of Microstrategy through reputation of course, but other than the fact I’d seen it on the Nasdaq and its logo looked a little like Microsoft’s did in the nineties, I knew little about the company itself.
It’s no coincidence, of course, that the first company to secure significant amounts of bitcoin for its “treasury reserve strategy” is a company entirely dedicated to forward-thinking research and business intelligence. In actual fact, it makes perfect sense that it would be.
These are very sharp people who have access to some of the best analytical tools in the industry. In fact, they created a lot of them, and many of the Fortune Global 500 now use those very same tools for their own applications.
So, if a future-focused company whose work is based on modelling likely outcomes for the future using cutting-edge data suddenly buys a lot of bitcoin, what does that tell us about what’s coming next?
Cool as a Cucumber
Micheal J Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, used deliberate language in his company's press release that made the announcement on Aug. 11, 2020.
You can’t help feeling he’s the cool guy who’s walked into a crisis somewhere, slowly removed his shades and causally announced what the rescue plan in such a way that everyone immediately listens and follows.
This statement, for example, is what many Bitcoiners have been purporting for some time:
“This investment reflects our belief…
