Bitcoin’s Treasury Bear Market Nears Its End as Infamous Short Seller Exits MSTR/BTC Bet
Wall Street's crypto skeptics are eating crow—again. A notorious short seller just unwound their MicroStrategy/Bitcoin arbitrage play, signaling what might be the final gasp of the treasury bear market.
When the bears retreat, bulls charge. The market's most vocal Bitcoin critic just folded their hand—quietly closing a months-long bet against Michael Saylor's trillion-dollar conviction play. No press release, no victory lap. Just a brokerage slip and the sound of leverage getting liquidated.
Finance traditionalists will call it a tactical retreat. Crypto natives know better—it's capitulation. After two years of 'this time it's different' macro headwinds, even the professional doubters can't ignore the math: corporate treasuries holding BTC are outperforming their dollar-hoarding peers by 3:1 since 2023. But hey, keep shorting those 'unproductive assets.'
James Chanos unwinds his Bitcoin treasury short
One of those shorts belonged to none other than James Chanos, the renowned investor and long-time foe of anything with “Bitcoin” on the label.
Chanos has officially closed out his $MSTR/Bitcoin hedged trade after 11 months, marking the end of a high-profile bet against the poster child for corporate BTC accumulation. For those keeping score at home, MicroStrategy is now holding over 640,000 BTC, and steadily buying every dip as if Michael Saylor never heard of risk management.
Chanos confirmed the move on X, sparking a flurry of takes and “is this the bottom?” threads across crypto Twitter. He posted:
“As we have gotten some inquiries, I can confirm that we have unwound our $MSTR/Bitcoin hedged trade as of yesterday’s open.”
The institutional players changing the game
Meanwhile, the institutional mood is quietly shifting. Traditional finance heavyweights are entering the chat; not as naysayers, but as stakeholders, participants, and, crucially, treasury innovators.
JPMorgan’s recent maneuvering in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, plus a slew of custody and settlement deals popping up in the news, point to a world where corporate Bitcoin adoption is less “wild west,” more boardroom strategy. Whether it’s pushing up ETF flows, tweaking treasury yield strategies, or rating digital assets on par with real-world securities, the shift is happening beneath the surface.
Of course, none of this suggests an imminent escape from volatility for Bitcoin treasury companies. Bitcoin remains haunted by the ghosts of macro uncertainty and regulatory U-turns. But the closure of headline shorts, especially those run by high-profile skeptics like Chanos, isn’t just about dollars; it’s a psychological turning point.
For both Bitcoin’s price and the institutional narrative, the message is clear: the worst may just be behind us, and the next chapter isn’t being written by the usual suspects.
