Michael Saylor doubled down on his opposition to publishing on-chain proof of reserves at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. When pressed on whether MicroStrategy would disclose wallet addresses to demonstrate its Bitcoin holdings, Saylor declared the practice a “bad idea” that “dilutes the security of the issuer, the custodians, the exchanges and the investors.”
Industry veterans routinely point to proof of reserves as a safeguard against insolvency—especially after the collapses of FTX and Mt. Gox—but Saylor argued that the measure provides only a one-sided view.
“A wallet address doesn’t also show liabilities,” he noted, underscoring that transparency around assets without audited obligations can create a false sense of security. He further warned that publishing address data would invite detailed “50 pages of security problems” if one were to “put it in deep think mode” with AI.
Proof-of-reserves has become standard among major exchanges and custodians seeking to rebuild trust. Binance, Kraken, OKX and asset manager Bitwise all now publish cryptographic confirmations that they hold sufficient Bitcoin to back user deposits.
Yet Saylor dismissed these disclosures as irrelevant for institutional issuers, insisting that “no institutional-grade or enterprise security analyst would think it’s a good idea to publish all of the wallet addresses, such that you could be traced back and forth.”
MicroStrategy leads all public companies with 580,250 BTC on its balance sheet—worth roughly $60.6 billion—followed by mining firm MARA Holdings with 48,137 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries.NET.
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