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Today, Feb. 4, Bitcoin evangelist and cofounder of MicroStrategy giant Michael Saylor has turned 60.
Four years ago, he radically changed the business strategy of his company, then stepped down from the CEO position to become the executive chairman and focus on the new Bitcoin strategy entirely.
Saylor's early career and dotcom bubble fortune crash
Saylor was born in 1965, in Lincoln, Nebraska. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and started MicroStrategy in 1989 as a cofounder, becoming the company’s chief executive officer. At MIT, he majored in aeronautics and astronautics, which he mentioned to Elon Musk, responding to one of his tweets, when MicroStrategy only started on its Bitcoin path.
MicroStrategy initially produced business analytics software, and in the late 1990s, it became so successful during the dotcom bubble that Saylor quickly became a multi-billionaire thanks to holding a large MSTR stake. However, as the bubble burst at the start of the 2000s, questionable accounting results led to a restatement of the financial results of the company and the MSTR price crashed, leaving Saylor with hardly any fortune. He later described it as the darkest day in his life.
Saylor turns billionaire thanks to Bitcoin
In August 2020, Saylor decided to use MicroStrategy’s cash reserves to start buying Bitcoin and putting it on the balance sheet. Those purchases, while regular, were not yet very frequent. However, the company, under Saylor’s leadership, continued to step on it.
Over the past few years, MicroStrategy began to fund its Bitcoin purchases by selling debt to corporate investors in the form of senior convertible notes, with an expiry date as to when they will be redeemed. The company also pays monthly yields from its Bitcoin earnings to MSTR holders.
By now, after the most recent purchase made this month, MicroStrategy holds 471,107 Bitcoins in total worth $46,982,964,048 at the time of this writing, after Bitcoin has again plunged below the $100,000 level. According to Forbes, Saylor personally owns 17,732 Bitcoins valued at $1,766,553,159 at the present exchange rate. In 2025, Saylor’s personal net worth constitutes $8.8 billion, which is down to the Bitcoin and MicroStrategy stock he holds. The latter is trading high as well, thanks to BTC.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
