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Bitcoin’s price is at some of its lowest levels in months.
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Crypto followers turned to bitcoin evangelist and Strategy founder Michael Saylor for a sign as the coin’s price has fallen. He’s urged them to keep the faith.
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While the price of bitcoin and some crypto-linked stocks are in retreat, others are gaining in spite of the rout.
The bitcoin faithful are turning to one of their most vocal evangelists for a sign amid an intensifying market rout. His message? HODL.
We’re talking about Michael Saylor, chief of Strategy (MSTR), the enterprise software company known for stockpiling bitcoin. The price of the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency has been falling lately, and rumors broke out on social media that the company was selling amid the slide. Saylor dismissed those rumors, but the notion that latched onto the possibility that the man who might be bitcoin’s best-known bull was turning tail shows the negativity radiating from the market at present.
As X users started to fret, Saylor posted an image of himself on a life raft as a burning ship sank behind him. “HODL,” he said, using an acronym for “hold on for dear life.”
The sell-off in risk assets this week—a bleed that the end of the U.S. government shutdown couldn’t stem—has put a dent in the price of bitcoin and the narrative that it could be a useful hedge against stocks or a safe haven like gold. Bitcoin sank below $95,000 on Friday morning to levels not seen since early May. Some crypto-linked stocks diverged, with MicroStrategy declining about 4%, while Coinbase Global (COIN), and Robinhood (HOOD) were up at least 1%.
Bitcoin is sometimes considered a hedge against stocks, characterized as a portfolio diversification tool. Lately, it’s been falling with the broader market as sentiment has soured.
Saylor, who in recent months had forecast that bitcoin would climb to $150,000 by the end of the year, said Strategy was “buying quite a lot” lately in a Friday interview with CNBC. He also stopped short of providing a price target, though he said bitcoin over the long-term would “outperform” both gold and the S&P 500.
“Obviously it’s hard to make a forecast for the end of the year right now given what’s happened over the past few weeks,” he said.
The cryptocurrency has erased almost all of its 2025 gains, lagging gold’s 50%-plus climb and the broad market’s 14% year-to-date rise. ETF investors appear to be in selling mode: Spot bitcoin funds including iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin (FBTC) collectively showed nearly $867 million in outflows yesterday, according to Farside Investors.