MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ:MSTR) founder Michael Saylor encouraged those who doubt the upside potential of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) to go short on the company's stock, assuring that it would never sell the cryptocurrency.

What happened: During an interview with journalist Madison Reidy that aired Thursday, Saylor asked skeptics to "love" MicroStrategy if they really "hate" Bitcoin.

"We're the perfect instrument to short because I promise you, I won't sell it. We're going to be leveraged long on Bitcoin," said Saylor, one of the most passionate advocates of the cryptocurrency.

Saylor said as a company, MicroStrategy has been consistent and transparent in its policy of buying and holding on to Bitcoin, and it was up to market participants to decide if they wanted to buy, sell, or short their shares.

"When I was a younger man I would have been concerned about people shorting my stock but now I'm not," Saylor added.

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Why It Matters: Saylor's remarks came amid MicroStratgy's audacious Bitcoin gambit, which has transformed the software development firm into a proxy for the world's greatest digital asset.

MicroStrategy adopted Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset in 2020, becoming the first publicly listed company to pursue this strategy, and hasn't looked back since then. Today, it holds over $17 billion of its total capital in Bitcoin, according to bitcointreasuries.net.

Saylor projects that by 2045, Bitcoin will constitute 7% of global financial capital, implying a $13 million price per Bitcoin.

Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was exchanging hands at $67,931.57, up 0.98% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro. Shares of MicroStrategy closed down 0.35% to $193.42 during Thursday's regular trading session.

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