Bitcoin: investors attack strategy for lack of transparency

An essential figure in institutional bitcoin, Michael Saylor now sees his legitimacy called into question. The co-founder of Strategy (ex-microstrategy), which made the BTC the heart of its business strategy, is the subject of a collective complaint. Investors accuse him and its leaders of having misleaded the market by hiding key information on the financial viability of their massive Bitcoin accumulation policy. It is a potential judicial setback for one of the most ardent defenders of the Crypto Reine.

A collective appeal against Strategy: heavy accusations on financial transparency

On May 16, a collective appeal was brought before the Federal Court of eastern Virginia by a group of investors, represented by Pomerantz LLP, against the company Strategy, its co -founder Michael Saylor, its CEO Phong Le and its CFO Andrew Kang.

Indeed, the complainants accuse the company to have published statements ” materially false and misleading»On his Bitcoin investment strategy. According to them, these claims would have hid the reality of the risks linked to the volatility of the BTC, which would have induced investors in a critical period from April 2024 to April 2025.

Here are the main elements accused of managers in the complaint:

• “” Deceptive statements on the profitability of the company's Bitcoin strategy“, According to the text of the appeal;
• An omission of risks linked to the extreme volatility of the BTC;
• The communication of financial objectives deemed ” excessively optimistic»And decorrelated real risks incurred;
• A manipulation of public perception via incomplete performance forecasts, in particular in the period that followed the adoption of new accounting standards;
• The alleged financial damage: the complainants claim to have suffered “significant losses »Linked to the fall of the Strategy title (MSTR), following these practices.

This complaint requires unpertified compensation, which includes reimbursement of legal costs and interest.

For its part, the company did not wish to comment on publicly, but posed a formal response to the SEC, in which it affirms:

We intend to vigorously challenge these allegations. At this point, it is impossible for us to estimate the outcome or the potential losses linked to this case.

Despite this news, MSTR action Currently posted an increase of 3.41 %, a sign of a still uncertain market as to the real impact of this procedure.

Accounting standards under the spotlight: a biased reading of the valuation of Bitcoin?

At the heart of the dispute is also the adoption, at the beginning of 2025, of the new accounting standards issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), known as ASU 2023-08.

These standards now require public enterprises to account for their cryptos on their “fair market value “that is to say to reflect in real time the increases and price drops in their net quarterly income.

According to the complainants, Strategy took advantage of this change to produce excessively optimistic performance reports.

The appeal stresses that “The defendants systematically provided enthusiastic evaluations of the performance of Strategy as Bitcoin cash flow after the adoption of the ASU 2023-08», By putting forward metrics like theBTC yield,,BTC GainAndBTC $ GAINwhile “ignoring the immense losses that the company could achieve».

Before the entry into force of this standard, companies had the obligation to recognize that the losses (and not the gains) on the valuation of their bitcoins, except in the event of sale. Strategy could therefore have used the ASU 2023-08 to display spectacular gains without giving a faithful image of real risks, especially in a market that is still so volatile.

With an average cost of acquiring the BTC at 69,726 dollars and a price that oscillates around 104,000 dollars, the company has an impressive latent added value. However, this dynamic could be reversed at any time. The appeal therefore points to a questionable management of information, likely to have deceived investors on the financial solidity of the Strategy model.