They don’t want to admit it, but even Michael Saylor’s biggest fans would agree that this year’s Jim Chanos Bearish Strategy (MSTR) trade will be extremely beneficial.
Chanos sold stocks shortly and hedged them completely in the long Bitcoin (BTC) position with its short-term sales.
In other words, rather than absolutely betting on the overvaluation of MSTR, he just prepared for that premium compared to his BTC holdings for collapse.
have.
On May 14th, at the 2025 New Yorkson Investment Conference, Chanos explained that he had been building a short position in strategy (formerly micro-strategy) since MNAV, 2.5x in November 2024.
In numerous podcasts and interviews over the past few months, he became his repetition The overall cost base is more than twice the MNAV.
This is a great cost base for those who bet on a low single digit percentage of the fund, as the price of MSTRs is declining. As of today, the basic MNAV for MSTR has decreased by 1.42 times, and the newly introduced corporate value MNAV is 1.63 times.
The acronym MNAV refers to a multiple of a strategy’s market capitalization multiple to its colloquial net asset value (NAV). Technically speaking, companies do not have NAVs, but crypto investors sympathize with calling the company’s crypto holdings NAVs.
Strategy NAV Approximately $70 billion.
Needless to say, Chanos’ trade was extremely beneficial.
The shares he sold in short supply at 2.5x MNAV today are up at least 34%, below 1.64x. Since November 1, 2024, 34% outperforms the benchmark for fund managers based on S&P 500 index returns, with an impressive 2,100 basis points.
Even stocks sold at twice the MNAV He surpassed S&P with at least 500 basis points.
Buy something for $1 and sell it for $2.50
Of course, Chanos’ two-range transactions include margin costs and management fees, so he pays some of those basic points to carry out his strategy.
Overall, and depending on his assumptions about cost base and fees, Jim Chanos’ hedged MSTR short sale position will likely increase by 15-35% against the S&P’s 13% profit since November 1, 2024.
This range assumes that Chanos did not use his own margins to multiply his position in leverage.
Read more: Michael Saylor says Bitcoin credits have this harvest curve – thanks to him
On the day of the Sohn NYC meeting, Chanos told CNBC News:
In addition to profits from the hedged short sale, Chanos managed to promote himself and his fund through his bearish media tour.
Continuing his career as a skeptical short-seller and risking less than 10% of his fund in real trade, Chanos has appeared in numerous podcasts and video interviews about his bets on Saylor’s BTC Treasury Company.
Overall, Chanos succeeded alongside Saylor himself. Like Saylor, he buys BTC and sells MSTR.
The main difference between the pair is the long-term plan. Saylor will buy BTC and sell MSTR forever, but Chanos plans to eventually cover his short cover and close the hedge by selling BTC.
