Tom Lee: Shorting MSTR has become the market's preferred hedge against a downturn, a phenomenon that has uncovered deeper structural issues

By: theblockbeats.news|2025/11/23 12:45:57

BlockBeats News, November 23, BitMine Chairman and CEO Tom Lee stated that MicroStrategy has become the preferred tool for cryptocurrency investors to manage risk, which partly explains the reason for its stock price dropping 43% in the past month.

「Strategy may be the most important focal point at the moment, as it is both a Bitcoin proxy stock and the most liquid alternative asset,」 Lee said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday. Due to the limited tools available for directly hedging losses in the crypto market, institutional traders have turned to shorting Strategy's stock. The company holds nearly 650,000 bitcoins, closely tying its stock price to Bitcoin's performance.

「In my view, when cryptocurrency market participants attempt to hedge their Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings' losses, they can't find any other hedging avenue apart from shorting its liquid alternative stock—and MicroStrategy is the best choice,」 explained Lee. He added that native hedging tools like Bitcoin and Ethereum derivatives lack liquidity for large funds, 「Any investor holding a significant Bitcoin long position... has very limited hedging capability in the crypto derivatives market.」

However, Strategy provides a workaround. 「Investors can utilize the highly liquid Strategy options chain to hedge their entire cryptocurrency asset risk,」 Lee pointed out, 「Essentially, Strategy is absorbing all the hedging pressure generated by the entire crypto industry to protect long positions.」

Lee also mentioned the lasting impact of the October 10 market crash, which wiped out $20 billion in market value and destroyed exchange liquidity. 「This severely hit market makers,」 he referred to market makers as the 「central banks」 of the crypto market. Since then, systemic fissures have been persistent, and liquidity for Bitcoin proxy assets like altcoins, mining stocks, and Strategy remains thin.

Amid the current downturn, MSTR is one of the hardest-hit targets. Lee believes this partly stems from its role as the market's 「pressure valve.」 He pointed out that the underlying structure of the crypto market remains fragile, and the phenomenon of Strategy becoming a hedging tool is revealing deeper structural issues.

OKX founder Star published a lengthy article, systematically analyzing Binance's competitive advantages over the years: regulatory arbitrage, speculative narrative cycles, social media control, and superficial compliance, stating that the essence of these advantages is not product capability, but ra...

Full version of the debut Q&A! Federal Reserve Chairman Waller: Sticking to the 2% inflation target, establishing five special working groups, individual did not submit the dot plot

Federal Reserve Chairman Waller's debut featured a significant slimming statement, the cancellation of forward guidance, refusal to submit the dot plot, and the establishment of five working groups, vowing to uphold the 2% inflation target, which triggered a sharp decline in U.S. stocks and a surge ...

From Disruptor to Shadow Market: The Crypto Market is Becoming a Colony of Traditional Finance

"Coin-stock linkage" has evolved from the early stage of macro correlation and one-way penetration of emotional funds to the current 3.0 stage, where on-chain perpetual contracts provide extended trading hours and emotional signal value for traditional assets 24/7, and participate in Pre-IPO pricing...

Dalio's important long article: How to position in the current market environment?

Do not confuse the excitement for new technologies with whether those tech stocks are attractive.

DeepSeek Financing Story

DeepSeek's financing insider information exposed: "Four-hour meeting" fully demonstrates Liang Wenfeng's determination for AGI, over a hundred institutions involved, Sequoia and Hillhouse rarely absent, not poaching talent is the hardest red line.

Morning Report | Illinois signs the strictest digital asset tax law in the U.S.; RWA tokenization market size surpasses $43 billion, institutions accelerate the migration of on-chain assets

Overview of Important Market Events on June 17

Morning Report | DeepSeek completes over $7 billion in financing, with a valuation exceeding $50 billion; Musk's personal wealth has surpassed the total market value of Bitcoin

Overview of Important Market Events on June 16

Cursor, why did you get on Musk's spaceship?

SpaceX set a record with its IPO, spending a staggering $60 billion to acquire the popular AI programming unicorn Cursor just four days later. Musk is using the ultimate puzzle of "super computing power + top coding engine" to propel the market value skyrocketing, surpassing Amazon in one fell swoop...

In the name of charity, for the benefit of the family: How the Trump family turned charity into profit?

This set of "beautiful rhetoric and value return to one's own people" has not stopped at charitable foundations; it has now almost been transferred intact to American Bitcoin.

Will Gold Break $4,500 After Tonight's Fed Decision? What XAUT and PAXG Traders Need to Know

The Federal Reserve announces its June rate decision tonight. Could gold break $4,500 next? Explore the latest gold price prediction, key Fed scenarios, and what they mean for XAUT and PAXG traders.

SharpLink CEO: How to understand that Ethereum developers have just surpassed 1 million?

The most important question in the cryptocurrency industry is not which chain is the fastest, but rather where top builders choose to build in the long term. Ethereum has just surpassed one million cumulative developers; what does this number mean?

Morning Report | MiCA grace period expires on July 1; Kalshi's trading volume in the first week of the World Cup breaks $5.1 billion, setting a record

Overview of Important Market Events on June 15

The foundation of SpaceX's trillion-dollar valuation: Who is dividing Musk's annual capital expenditure of tens of billions?

SpaceX Supply Chain Revealed: The Invisible Gold Mine Behind the Trillion-Dollar "Space Dream," from Nvidia's Computing Power Monopoly to China's Sole Supplier of Special Materials, these overlooked water-selling talents are the true wealth creation engine.

How to exit after asset tokenization?

Currently, three models have emerged, aimed at providing instant exit routes for tokenized real-world assets. Their differences lie in: who holds the funds required for exit, how efficiently the funds operate, and the extent to which this model can be scaled across different asset types.

The stablecoin positioning battle escalates: When compliance is just a ticket to entry, will USD1 become the biggest winner?

How does the GENIUS Act reshape the stablecoin landscape?

A16Z: The sun bears witness, SpaceX is worth 7.5 trillion

A deep analysis of Musk's ultimate grand vision: how SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla are deeply intertwined, using space AI data centers and Starships to gradually turn the sci-fi fantasies of Mars colonization and multi-planetary civilization into reality.

Mergers and acquisitions in the cryptocurrency market are exceptionally active

Behind the rise in mergers and acquisitions is a sluggish financing market, declining project valuations, and increased pressure for startup teams to exit. However, it also indicates that the cryptocurrency industry has not lost its capital vitality, but is completing resource reorganization in anot...

Why Is Bitcoin Down Today? What the Hawkish FOMC Means for SpaceX, Gold and Nasdaq

OKX Star analyzes Binance's competitive advantages: when regulation levels the playing field, competition has just begun

Full version of the debut Q&A! Federal Reserve Chairman Waller: Sticking to the 2% inflation target, establishing five special working groups, individual did not submit the dot plot