Founder of the hedge fund Kynikos Associates, Jim Chanos, shared his views on the strategy of the company Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, during the Sohn Investment Conference held in New York. Chanos announced his decision to open short positions against the company’s stock while simultaneously purchasing bitcoin.
This is reported by Finway
Chanos noted:
“We are selling MicroStrategy stock and buying bitcoin — essentially buying something for $1 and selling it for $2.5”
, which reflects his aggressive investment strategy. According to him, Strategy, under the leadership of bitcoin enthusiast Michael Saylor, owns over half a million bitcoins and was previously considered an index reflection of this cryptocurrency.
However, Chanos criticized the company’s model, pointing out that it uses leverage and trades at a significant premium to the actual value of its bitcoin assets. He believes that some companies attempting to replicate Strategy’s model are offering retail investors risky ideas, stating:
“We are buying bitcoin through a corporate structure, so evaluate us with the same premium. This is absolutely absurd”
.
Among the companies following in Strategy’s footsteps, he mentioned the Japanese investment firm Metaplanet, which already holds 6,796 BTC. Chanos emphasized that such behavior in the market is indicative of speculative sentiment among retail investors, and his strategy involves arbitrage between the real asset — bitcoin — and the overvalued stock that merely mimics its ownership.
He also added that this serves as a good barometer not only for arbitrage but also for assessing the overall speculative sentiment in the market. Despite bitcoin rising 70% over the past year, Strategy’s stock has increased by over 220%, which Chanos believes is further evidence of market overvaluation. It is worth noting that recently, Michael Saylor claimed that artificial intelligence helped the company accumulate over $52 billion in bitcoin.