Strategy’s Saylor Stays Committed to Bitcoin Amid Selloff — Will It Work Out?

Michael Saylor’s boldest conviction has become his greatest vulnerability. Strategy Inc (NASDAQ:MSTR)., the world’s largest public holder of bitcoin through its transformed corporate treasury, is caught in the crossfire of a significant crypto market correction that has wiped away billions in value and forced the company to dramatically slow its aggressive acquisition pace.

Bitcoin has plummeted from its all-time high of $126,198 to trade near $95,309, a devastating 24.5% decline that has left cryptocurrency investors reeling and questioning whether the digital asset can recover its momentum.

The selloff has exposed the inherent risks of Strategy’s hypervolatile business model, which channels the company’s resources into accumulating as much bitcoin as possible through equity offerings and debt issuances. With the company’s stock price down 7.15% on November 14 alone and trading at $208.54, a substantial decline from its 52-week high of $543, Strategy shares have become a direct proxy for bitcoin sentiment, amplifying losses for shareholders who believed in Saylor’s long-term vision.

The timing could not be worse, as technical analysis suggests bitcoin may extend its correction further toward support levels near $93,600 and potentially down to the $85,000-$86,000 range if the current bearish momentum persists.

Strategy’s bitcoin acquisition engine, once a juggernaut of financial engineering prowess, has ground to a near halt just as prices have become most attractive. The company’s weekly bitcoin purchases have collapsed from tens of thousands of coins in late 2024 to approximately 200 BTC per week in recent months: a slowdown directly attributable to the collapse of its equity issuance premium from 208% down to just 4%.

As the spread between Strategy’s share price and the underlying value of its bitcoin holdings has narrowed, the company’s ability to raise capital for additional purchases through stock offerings has become severely compromised, creating a perverse dynamic where the strategy works best when least convenient.

Michael Saylor’s Unwavering Conviction Amid Market Headwinds

Despite the mounting pressure, Michael Saylor has refused to waver in his belief that bitcoin will ultimately eclipse gold as a store of value. Speaking at Yahoo Finance’s Invest 2025 event, the Strategy founder and executive chairman stated unequivocally that "there’s no doubt in my mind, bitcoin will be a larger asset class than gold by the year 2035." This bold proclamation came precisely when bitcoin needed the strongest conviction voices, as the cryptocurrency has underperformed gold by 52% year-to-date and faces a genuine bear market narrative gaining traction among skeptical investors worldwide.

Saylor’s mathematical framework for this audacious prediction relies on bitcoin’s fixed supply of 21 million coins and the approximate 99% completion of mining by 2035. For bitcoin to surpass gold’s current market capitalization of $29.2 trillion, the cryptocurrency would need to reach prices above $1.4 million per coin (a nearly 15-fold increase from current levels).

While such a projection appears fantastical to many market observers, Saylor has buttressed his argument with assertions that industry fundamentals have improved dramatically over the past twelve months and that current market pessimism represents an opportunity rather than a warning sign for committed believers.

When questioned about whether bitcoin investors are losing faith amid the sharp decline, Saylor pushed back forcefully against the narrative of flagging conviction. "I don’t think they’re losing faith," he responded, pivoting instead to characterize the downturn as a temporary market sentiment issue divorced from underlying technological and adoption realities.

Saylor’s confidence extends to Strategy’s continued accumulation strategy, as evidenced by his cryptic social media posts hinting at future large-scale bitcoin purchases despite the company’s current financial constraints. His message to the market remains consistent: those with conviction and capital are not abandoning bitcoin during corrections but rather positioning for the eventual recovery and long-term appreciation he believes inevitable.

Gold’s Outperformance Exposes Bitcoin’s Vulnerability and Questions Saylor’s Thesis

The 52% year-to-date outperformance of gold versus bitcoin represents a devastating rebuke to Saylor’s narrative and raises legitimate questions about whether his aggressive accumulation strategy will ultimately vindicate his conviction or destroy shareholder value. Gold, the asset bitcoin was designed to compete with and eventually surpass as digital money for a new era, has maintained its historical role as a safe haven during market uncertainty while bitcoin has cratered.

The divergence is particularly striking because bitcoin was pitched as superior to gold—digital, scarce, divisible, and free from government control—yet when investors seek safety and stability, they continue to choose the yellow metal over the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin’s technical deterioration adds credence to gold’s relative strength narrative. The cryptocurrency has broken below critical support levels, including the 0.50 Fibonacci retracement at 99,600 and the neckline of a completed shoulder-over-shoulder chart pattern near 105,000-106,000, signaling deeper weakness ahead according to technical analysis.

Gold, meanwhile, continues to hover around $4,194.50 per troy ounce, benefiting from the same uncertain macroeconomic environment and unclear rate outlook that has spooked cryptocurrency investors. The divergence suggests that investors facing genuine economic anxiety are gravitating toward centuries-old proven value stores rather than speculative digital assets with unpredictable price trajectories.

Strategy’s 22% year-to-date stock price decline stands in stark contrast to the S&P 500’s 14.55% gain, demonstrating that even exposure to the broader technology sector through cryptocurrency-linked companies offers no refuge from the bitcoin downturn. While gold has rewarded passive holders and long-term believers with positive returns, Strategy shareholders have experienced deteriorating wealth despite Saylor’s conviction and accumulated 641,692 BTC representing approximately 3% of bitcoin’s total supply.

This performance gap raises uncomfortable questions for believers in Saylor’s thesis: if bitcoin is truly the superior store of value that will eclipse gold within a decade, why has gold outperformed so dramatically during the initial test of conviction when prices have fallen and conviction should matter most?

The answer may require Saylor’s projected ten-year timeframe to validate, but in the interim, gold’s steady accumulation of gains stands as a powerful counterargument to the digital asset’s revolutionary potential.

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This article was written by Shane Neagle, editor in chief of The Tokenist. To get trade ideas and pre-market insights delivered to your inbox every morning premarket, click here to sign up for Bull Whisper (free), brought to you in partnership with The Tokenist.