Renowned short seller James Chanos has officially closed his $MSTR/Bitcoin hedged trade after 11 months, marking an end to his high-profile bet against Bitcoin-linked equities and Strategy stock. The unwinding of institutional short positions is a trend reversal indicator that could mean the worst for Bitcoin treasury companies is behind them.
The bitcoin treasury ecosystem has been battered and bruised in recent weeks. Most companies’ stock is significantly down from peaks earlier this year, and analysts have been calling investors to short stocks like MSTR. They fervently cautioned that a bubble was present in bitcoin treasury companies, and it was about to unceremoniously burst.
But just as the shorting pressure was reaching fever pitch, a reprieve may be on the horizon. On Saturday, Pierre Rochard, CEO of The Bitcoin Bond Company and treasury sage, declared that the bear market for Bitcoin treasury companies is “gradually coming to an end.”
To his mind, the unwinding of institutional shorts, one of the cleanest signals in the game, suggests the tide may be turning:
“Expect continued volatility, but this is the kind of signal you want to see for a reversal.”
Not exactly champagne-popping territory, but for those who have waded through endless bearish sentiment and mNAV headaches, hope is about as welcome as rain in a desert.
James Chanos unwinds his Bitcoin treasury short
One of those shorts belonged to none other than James Chanos, the renowned investor and long-time foe of anything with “Bitcoin” on the label.
Chanos has officially closed out his $MSTR/Bitcoin hedged trade after 11 months, marking the end of a high-profile bet against the poster child for corporate BTC accumulation. For those keeping score at home, MicroStrategy is now holding over 640,000 BTC, and steadily buying every dip as if Michael Saylor never heard of risk management.
Chanos confirmed the move on X, sparking a flurry of takes and “is this the bottom?” threads across crypto Twitter. He posted:
“As we have gotten some inquiries, I can confirm that we have unwound our $MSTR/Bitcoin hedged trade as of yesterday’s open.”
The institutional players changing the game
Meanwhile, the institutional mood is quietly shifting. Traditional finance heavyweights are entering the chat; not as naysayers, but as stakeholders, participants, and, crucially, treasury innovators.
JPMorgan’s recent maneuvering in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, plus a slew of custody and settlement deals popping up in the news, point to a world where corporate Bitcoin adoption is less “wild west,” more boardroom strategy. Whether it’s pushing up ETF flows, tweaking treasury yield strategies, or rating digital assets on par with real-world securities, the shift is happening beneath the surface.
Of course, none of this suggests an imminent escape from volatility for Bitcoin treasury companies. Bitcoin remains haunted by the ghosts of macro uncertainty and regulatory U-turns. But the closure of headline shorts, especially those run by high-profile skeptics like Chanos, isn’t just about dollars; it’s a psychological turning point.
For both Bitcoin’s price and the institutional narrative, the message is clear: the worst may just be behind us, and the next chapter isn’t being written by the usual suspects.
