As long Michael Saylor is around, bitcoin will never walk alone.
The billionaire co-founder and CEO of MicroStrategy, and four-alarm bitcoin evangelist has taken the concept of HODL -- sometimes known as "hold on for dear life" -- to the stratosphere.
Bitcoin Under Pressure
This is a challenging time for digital currencies. Edward Moya, senior market analyst for the Americas with Oanda, noted that "the news cycle has been pretty awful for crypto markets."
"Bitcoin is under pressure and struggling to hold onto the $20,000 level," Moya said. "If bitcoin breaks below the recent low around $17,500, there isn't much support until the $14,500 level."
Bitcoin, the king of cryptocurrencies, is getting crowned, losing more than 70% of its value since it's Nov. 10 high of $69,077.44
In addition, lender Celsius Network has gone silent after suspending fund withdrawals and all other operations on its platform.
Sister tokens Luna and UST, or TerraUSD, of the Terra ecosystem have collapsed, causing the disappearance of at least $55 billion.
And Singapore-based crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) has just defaulted on a loan worth more than $670 million, after it had $200 million exposure to Luna.
Well, others may be abandoning cryptocurrency at warp speed, but Saylor is walking through the storm with his head up high, unafraid all that red ink.
Yes, this is the same man who has lost something in the neighborhood of $1.2 billion on bitcoin.
'A Great Time to Buy'
But is this any time to cut and run? Judging by his recent actions, Saylor's response would be a responding "Hell, no!"
He's walking on through the wind and the rain, with hope in his heart, and, hopefully, a lot of money in his bank account, by purchasing even more bitcoin.
"MicroStrategy has purchased an additional 480 bitcoins for ~$10.0 million at an average price of ~$20,817 per #bitcoin. As of 6/28/22 @MicroStrategy holds ~129,699 bitcoins acquired for ~$3.98 billion at an average price of ~$30,664 per bitcoin. $MSTR," Saylor tweeted to the world on June 29
Some people may question the wisdom of this, but Neil Bergquist, CEO and founder of the digital currency exchange of Coinme, was supportive of both bitcoin and Saylor.
"BTC has a simple long-term value proposition that will stand the test of short-term corrections caused by overleveraged greed and poor risk management," he said. "I'm always supportive when Saylor buys BTC and now appears to be a great time to buy."
Naturally, Saylor's announcement riled up all sorts of attitude on social media.
'A Great Hero or a Great Fool'
"As some people are worried about MicroStrategy being liquidated or not, they keep accumulating more bitcoins," one person tweeted. "Michael Saylor has already made it clear that they'll keep buying more bitcoin whenever they have excess cash. MicroStrategy believes totally in the bitcoin potential."
"You will go down in history as a great hero or a great fool," another commenter said. "In either case, you will forever be remembered. Godspeed, sir."
"Your conviction is incredible and thanks for all that you do for cryptos sir!" one tweet said.
"why do you feel the need to tell everyone?" another poster asked. "Does it make you feel superior to those who cannot afford to buy or are being blocked by their banks? We all know you are rich but yet you keep rubbing it in to us not so fortunate. Thanks for that!"
Economist Peter Schiff, Bitcoin's own prophet of doom, hate-tweeted his feelings about Saylor's actions.
'Old Man Yells at Bitcoin'
"So $MSTR is down $1.4 billion on #Bitcoin, yet you continue to average down, throwing not so good money after incredibly bad," he said. "(I'm) sure that but for your buying bitcoin's price would be lower. But now that you're done the decline can resume until you waste more money buying again."
Of course, this wouldn't be Twitter without critics getting their own side order of snark.
One poster responded to Schiff by putting up an image of Grandpa Simpson on the front page of a newspaper with the headline blaring "Old Man Yells at Bitcoin."
"Old man but richer than you dude," came the rejoinder. "He sleeps...you don't."
So remember that at the end of a storm, there's a golden sky and the sweet silver song of a lark.
And plenty of sarcasm.
