MicroStrategy announces Bitcoin bonuses for board of directors instead of cash

Business intelligence firm MicroStrategy announced on Sunday that its board of directors will now receive bonuses in Bitcoin (BTC) instead of cash.

A modified 8-K form filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission revealed MicroStrategy’s decision to dispense with cash bonuses and instead use Bitcoin to compensate those on the company’s board. The modified filing states:

“Going forward, non-employee directors will receive all fees for their service on the Company’s Board in bitcoin instead of cash.”

MicroStrategy has dollar-cost averaged into Bitcoin since the end of 2020, buying small amounts here and there until it eventually accumulated a war chest of over $4 billion worth of BTC.

The 8-K form stated MicroStrategy’s belief that Bitcoin could function as a reliable store of value and commended its open-source nature, which means it isn’t beholden to any one corporate entity.

“In approving bitcoin as a form of compensation for Board service, the Board cited its commitment to bitcoin given its ability to serve as a store of value, supported by a robust and public open-source architecture, untethered to sovereign monetary policy,” states the filing.

The dollar amount of bonuses paid to board members will not change under the new system. Instead, the dollar value of the bonus in question will be converted to Bitcoin at the time of the payment and sent to the director’s wallet. The filing elaborates:

“Under this modified arrangement, the amount of Board fees payable to non-employee directors remains unchanged and will be nominally denominated in USD. At the time of payment, the fees will be converted from USD into bitcoin by the payment processor and then deposited into the digital wallet of the applicable non-employee director.”