In a Friday op-ed, Lionel Laurent, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, argues that MicroStrategy’s debt-for-Bitcoin strategy will not be viable in the long term.
Laurent recently recalled the fact that Citron Research had disclosed a short position in the company, making its shares plunge by more than 16%.
As reported by U.Today, MicroStrategy recently became one of the top 100 biggest public companies in the U.S., rivaling the likes of chip giant Intel.
The company has managed to increase its valuation by roughly 50 times since making an unorthodox move to adopt Bitcoin as its treasury reserve asset.
MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin play relies on leveraging cheap debt to secure more cash for funding future purchases. As reported by U.Today, it recently completed another $3 billion offering of convertible notes, while its total Bitcoin holdings have grown far above the $30 billion mark.
This audacious strategy, however, is fraught with various risks, according to Laurent. A massive Bitcoin price crash is the most obvious risk mentioned by the columnist. Such a scenario could lead to asset sales and write-downs for the red-hot company.
Even if Bitcoin avoids a major price crash, MicroStrategy could still be in trouble due to its massive premium relative to NAV.
Saylor, who is no stranger to dramatic crashes and comebacks after famously losing $6 billion in a day in 2000, is seemingly unfazed by growing skepticism.
“The number one risk you take is the existential risk that Bitcoin has an extinction-level event and goes to zero immediately tomorrow,” Saylor said during a recent CNBC interview. However, MicroStrategy investors have accepted that risk, according to Saylor.