MicroStrategy’s ambitious $650 million Bitcoin investment wouldn’t have been possible without the backing of the billion-dollar company’s investors. However, few know the names of the companies that supported the ambitious decision and decided to allocate a significant portion of their own funds to Michael Saylor’s big investment play.Here are the big names backing Michael Saylor’s all-in investment in BitcoinFew companies managed to cause a media frenzy as big as frenzy has. The business intelligence giant recently announced a $650 million bond sale to finance more Bitcoin purchases, making it the single-largest Bitcoin holder among billion-dollar companies.But while MicroStrategy and its CEO Michael Saylor are slowly becoming household names, at least to those in the crypto industry, few know the names of the companies that supported Saylor’s bold foray into Bitcoin.According to Ellie Frost, a tech investment banker and popular Twitter personality, many of MicroStrategy’s largest shareholders were already bullish on Bitcoin before the company announced its drastic allocation to crypto. And when combined with optimal market conditions and an aggressive push towards BTC coming from MicroStrategy, the bullishness was what essentially made the company’s move possible.Russell Investment, the 8th largest shareholder in MicroStrategy owning around 2 percent of the company, is also one of its most bullish investors. According to Frost, the company has upped its Bitcoin position by more than 70 percent since June, and have been actively promoting Bitcoin since 2018.Bold exposure and bold valuations from more major shareholdersMicroStrategy’s 10th largest holder, Renaissance Tech, announced plans to offer cash-settled bitcoin futures earlier this year. Around the same time as the news about the new offering was released, MicroStrategy revealed that they were considering diversifying into alternative assets. While it’s impossible to tell whether the company knew that these assets would include Bitcoin, they began increasing their position in MicroStrategy. Renaissance Tech currently holds four times as many shares of MicroStrategy than it did in June, Frost wrote.The largest overall investor in MicroStrategy with around 15 percent of the company’s shares is BlackRock, a New York-based global investment management corporation. With over $8 trillion in funds under management, the company is also the world’s largest asset manager. Despite decreasing their position in MicroStrategy by around 5 percent overall, the company is still bullish on Bitcoin, with its CEO going as far as saying that Bitcoin could replace gold.The formerly bearish Citron Fund is also one of the big players that backed MicroStrategy’s big Bitcoin play. In a November report, the company said that “there is no better way to play bitcoin in the stock market today” than investing in MicroStrategy.
“In other words, if bitcoin goes to $0, MSTR’s core business alone is still worth
more than its current market price,” the company said in its report, illustrating the viewpoint of most MicroStrategy investors.
