Strategy’s Michael Saylor has a message for Bitcoin investors as its price declines

Bitcoin believers are turning to one of its most vocal evangelists for a sign amid the intensifying market rout. His message? Hodel.

We’re talking about Michael Saylor, Head of Strategy (MSTR), the enterprise software company known for storing Bitcoin. The price of the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency recently fell, and rumors circulated on social media that the company was selling amid the decline. Saylor denied the rumours, but the idea that the man who may be Bitcoin’s most famous bull was declining shows the negativity radiating from the market at the moment.

When X users began to worry, Saylor posted a photo of himself on a life raft while a burning ship sank behind him. “HODL,” he said, using an acronym for “hold on for dear life.”

This week’s sell-off in risk assets — a bleeding that the end of the U.S. government shutdown was unable to stem — has dragged down the price of bitcoin and the narrative that it could be a useful hedge against stocks or a safe haven like gold. Bitcoin fell below $95,000 on Friday morning to levels not seen since early May. Some cryptocurrency-related stocks were mixed, with MicroStrategy down about 4%, while Coinbase Global (COIN) and Robinhood (HOOD) rose at least 1%.

Saylor, who in recent months has predicted that Bitcoin’s price will rise to $150,000 by the end of the year, said the strategy has been “buying a lot” recently in a Friday interview with CNBC. He also stopped short of offering a price target, although he said that over the long term bitcoin would “outperform” both gold and the S&P 500.

“It’s obviously difficult to make year-end forecasts right now given what’s happened over the past few weeks,” he said.

The cryptocurrency has erased almost all of its gains in 2025, lagging gold’s 50%-plus rise and the broad market’s 14% year-to-date rise. ETF investors appear to be in selling mode: Bitcoin spot funds, including iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin (FBTC), showed a combined roughly $867 million in outflows yesterday, according to Farside Investors.

Meanwhile, cryptocurrency watchers are becoming less optimistic about the market’s decline as investors rush to sell. Sentiment weakened after bitcoin fell across a key technical support zone of $100,000 to $102,000, said Vitaly Shtyrkin, chief product officer at Estonia-based B2BinPay platform. Dean Chen, an analyst at derivatives trading platform Bitonix, likened the recent decline to more than just a “simple technical correction.”

Although Strategy may be buying at these levels — and just a few days ago, some experts sounded bullish with Bitcoin’s rebound — others are staying away. “We’re in this awkward in-between zone. I don’t want to buy,” Louis Sykes, senior cryptocurrency analyst at All Star Charts, said during a live X broadcast discussing what to do about cryptocurrencies now. “Just go play some golf.”