The Winners and Losers of Bitcoin’s Bull Run

Arkham Intelligence Bitcoin bull run Cryptocurrencies Michael Saylor MicroStrategy

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Connor Sephton

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Connor Sephton

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Connor Sephton is a journalist based in London, who also works for Sky News and the BBC as a radio newsreader and online reporter. He has covered crypto since 2018 — reporting from major conferences...

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Elena is the Features Lead at Cryptonews.com. With a Master's degree in science journalism from City University, London, she is passionate about exploring complex topics in the world of technology.

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Last updated: 

November 19, 2024

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Bitcoin’s above $90,000, and the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies is at a record high of $3 trillion.

But while it’s great news for long-term HODLers, the surge isn’t great news for everyone.

So, who are the winners and losers from this year’s bull run?

Winner: Michael Saylor

Throughout the darkest days of the bear market, there was one man whose conviction remained unshaken: Michael Saylor.

MicroStrategy’s executive chairman was instrumental in getting the company to start holding BTC in reserve back in August 2020.

While this investment quickly led to billions of dollars in paper profits, that all vanished in 2022, and the business was drowning in red ink.

Undeterred, MicroStrategy continued to buy the dip — and accumulated as much BTC as possible by borrowing aggressively.

Fast forward to now, you can see how this multibillion-dollar bet paid off.

The business now owns a staggering 331,200 BTC — almost 1.6% of this cryptocurrency’s total supply — and at the time of writing, this war chest is worth $30.3 billion.

All of this Bitcoin was snapped up for just $16.5 billion, meaning MicroStrategy has almost doubled its money with an average cost price of about $49,000 per coin.

Few other publicly listed companies have followed in Saylor’s footsteps — and that’s reflected in MicroStrategy’s share price.

MSTR’s share price has accelerated by 711% over the past 12 months — comfortably outperforming Bitcoin’s gains of 150% over the same period.

In some ways, the stock has started to serve as a bellwether for crypto sentiment, and an indirect way for TradFi investors to gain exposure to BTC’s market movements.

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Loser: Governments

It’s easy to forget that governments around the world are some of Bitcoin’s biggest holders. The U.S. has seized 208,108 BTC from criminals, and the U.K. has 61,245.

Data from Arkham Intelligence shows both countries have balances in the billions — but as things stand, they’re big losers after the recent rally.

Bitcoiner Jameson Lopp has been tracking BTC sold by the U.S. Treasury for more than 10 years.

Back in June 2014, 29,657 BTC was auctioned off for $18.7 million — a haul that would be worth more than $2.7 billion at current market rates.

Two batches of 50,000 BTC were also sold for a grand total of $32.5 million. Fast forward to now, that crypto would be valued at over $9.2 billion.

Governments still don’t seem to be learning lessons from the past.

Germany rapidly offloaded 50,000 BTC back in June — and initially, this bulk transaction appeared to weigh heavily on the market.

In the space of just five months, the country has missed out on potential profits of $1.4 billion — funds that could have gone toward benefiting taxpayers.

American politicians have long been calling for seized Bitcoin to be placed in a strategic reserve rather than auctioned off — a policy that could be realized with Trump’s re-election.

Of course, an honorable exception here is El Salvador, which has quietly been buying 1 BTC a day.

Its official wallet now holds 5,938.77 BTC with a value of $544 million.

Winner: Exchanges

Centralized exchanges enabling newcomers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies have seen their app store rankings surge in recent weeks.

Coinbase was the 461st most-popular app on iOS as of October 21 — but when BTC raced to a new all-time high on November 13, it was in 8th place.

Some analysts have used demand for exchange apps to gauge when the crypto market might be topping out — feeding into the old saying that when your cab driver starts talking about Bitcoin, it’s time to sell.

Bull markets are catnip for trading platforms because fees represent the bulk of their revenue — and it’s no coincidence that Coinbase’s share price has rallied 103% so far this year.

The U.S. company also lobbied hard during the election — and helped found the Stand With Crypto campaign, which scored political candidates based on their stance toward digital assets.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong held talks with President-Elect Trump on Monday to talk about his crypto policies going forward.

On X, he’s even called for individual income tax to be scrapped entirely, with revenues found through other means instead.

Armstrong could end up playing an instrumental role in shaping what the future of regulation looks like in the U.S. — after spending years criticizing the SEC’s approach.

Loser: Bitcoin Pizza Guy

Of course, no rundown of winners and losers would be complete without Bitcoin Pizza Guy.

Back in 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz spent 10,000 BTC on two pizzas from Papa John’s, in an attempt to convince the world that this cryptocurrency could be used as a payment method.

At current market rates, that’s the equivalent of $920 million. For two pizzas. He infamously wrote on the BitcoinTalk forum:

“I like things like onions, peppers, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, pepperoni, etc.. just standard stuff no weird fish topping or anything like that. If you’re interested please let me know and we can work out a deal.”

Hanyecz insists he has no regrets about becoming “Bitcoin Pizza Guy,” and his eye-watering transaction is now celebrated in crypto circles every May.

But deep down, it must hurt a little that missed out on the chance to become insanely rich — and maybe even a billionaire.

You may be wondering what ended up happening to all that crypto. Well, it was received by a teenager called Jeremy Sturdivant.

He ended up spending this Bitcoin on traveling — admitting he had “no idea how huge it would become.”