The famous 'short seller' has taken short positions in two major crypto companies.

Short (known for his short ) trades, investor Jim Chanos is taking a position against Strategy (formerly known as MicroStrategy) company, believing that he is pursuing a risky strategy in Bitcoin while investing in it.

Speaking to CNBC, Chanos said, “We are selling MicroStrategy shares and buying Bitcoin, and in fact, we are selling something we bought for 1 dollar for 2.5 dollars.”

Chanos said the following:

“The important thing is that people understand that… I don’t know if Bitcoin is going to go to $100,000 or $1 million; I don’t think anyone knows either. But what I do know is that there is usually a structure where we can capture a long position of $2.5-$3 against a $1 short position. MicroStrategy, and now similar companies following in their footsteps, raising a lot of money, are trying to sell retail investors that… ‘Like MicroStrategy, we will buy Bitcoin with our company assets, you should give us a similar premium.’ Thus, they generate profitability from the difference between the price paid by the new investor and the actual net asset value (NAV). That seems ridiculous to me. And we’re doing the opposite of what MicroStrategy and Michael Saylor did. We sell MicroStrategy stock and buy Bitcoin. It’s like selling an asset for $2.5 that actually costs $1.”

Chanos commented on the transaction, saying, “This is not just an arbitrage opportunity, but also a good indicator of individual investors’ speculative appetite.”

Also shorting Coinbase stocks

The famous investor also has a short position in Coinbase shares. Chanos explained the rationale for this position in Coinbase shares by stating that the stock price is trading at multiples of 7-8 times the company’s book value, and he said:

“Other companies can now do what Coinbase has done as a leader and pioneer in the industry. Today, you can buy Bitcoin ETFs everywhere, you can trade on platforms like Robinhood or elsewhere. So Coinbase basically operates like a broker (broker) and generally brokers are valued with low multipliers, and over time they tend to have low profitability margins. Coinbase’s profitability margins are still very high.”

Published: May 15, 2025 14:35