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The Chanos Big Short

Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin repository, now known as Strategy, is enjoying a 2x premium on its BTC holdings. Is this legit, or simply erogeny for Bitcoin maximalists? The legendary short Jim Chanos has another idea…

James Chanos
The question has now attracted the attention of Jim Chanos, the well-known short-seller, who can’t for the life of him justify Strategy’s premium. Photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
July 16, 2025

As he has pretty much every month since August 2020, Michael Saylor bought more Bitcoin to add to his prodigious stash. On Bastille Day, the billionaire executive chairman of Strategy (formerly known as MicroStrategy) added another 4,225 BTC to his reserves, at a total cost of $472.5 million, or an average per-BTC cost of $111,827. Strategy, of course, remains one of the largest holders of Bitcoin, with 601,550 BTC, purchased at an average cost of $71,268 per BTC, and a total acquisition cost of $42.8 billion. That is not a typo. Those Bitcoins are now worth $71 billion, giving Saylor a tidy, nearly $30 billion profit.