Bitcoin investor MicroStrategy tumbles 16% after short report

Shares in MicroStrategy, the bitcoin-backing company, tumbled 16.2 per cent after a well-known short seller said it had become “completely detached” from “bitcoin fundamentals”.

MicroStrategy has soared more than 500 per cent this year on its approach of buying bitcoin and selling new shares to buy yet more. 

Citron Research on Thursday praised founder Michael Saylor for being a “visionary” and said that while it remained bullish on Bitcoin, it had hedged that with a short MicroStrategy position.

Bitcoin itself has risen about a third since Donald Trump won the presidential election two weeks ago, with investors betting that he will introduce crypto-friendly rules.

After Thursday’s slide, MicroStrategy is up 64 per cent in that time and has raised $7bn selling bonds and shares to add to its bitcoin holdings.