On Aug. 11, 2020, Michael Saylor made history when Strategy (MicroStrategy back then) announced its first Bitcoin purchase of 21,454 $BTC at an average price of $11,653. From that moment on, the corporate treasury game forever changed.
But what if you did nothing more than buy one Bitcoin that same day and never touched it again?
Today, Bitcoin trades at $78,000. That is a 569% increase from Saylor’s purchase price. One Bitcoin bought in 2020 for $11,653 would now be worth an additional $66,347. And what if you had invested more — like $100,000? That investment would be worth $670,000 today.
No leverage, no trading, no DeFi voodoo. Just pure conviction.
Now, scale it up. Saylor’s initial investment of $250 million has grown to nearly $1.7 billion at current prices, not counting subsequent purchases. Yet, despite holding 3.5% of all circulating $BTC, he is currently underwater because the average cost basis across all Strategy purchases is around $77,627. That is right where $BTC is now.
HODL works? Kind of
Ironically, retail investors who simply copied the initial purchase and then sold outperformed the man who pioneered institutional “HODLing.”
For the record, Bitcoin’s all-time high is $126,198.07. If that level is reached again, a $100,000 investment in August 2020 could peak at $1.08 million. That is a 10x return with zero movement. And the window was not mythical — it was 42 months ago.
This is not a story about timing the top. It is about one of the few times in financial history when doing nothing would have been the best strategy.
And Saylor? He started the fire. However, those who never added fuel might be the real winners.