Jim Chanos is calling for another MSTR short
According to a new X post by Jim Chanos, who profitably short-sold Michael Saylor’s BTC acquisition company a year ago, there is still $80 billion of “pure arbitrage” on the table.
Chanos called the catalyst of Strategy selling its own stock a trading opportunity.
“One of the greatest pure arbitrage situations, ever,” he stated, also calling it “an $80 billion actionable spread.”
Chanos isn’t recommending an $80 billion trade in full but merely pointing out the broad opportunity within which a trader can time specific entries and exits.
The idea is that a skeptic can short any amount of MSTR, directly or via derivatives, with a spot or derivative long position in BTC that is proportional to Strategy’s BTC holdings and sized appropriately to the overall position.
In his post, Chanos didn’t confirm that he’d initiated a new MSTR short-sale, disclose a hedge ratio, or calculate how he reached his $80 billion estimate.
Read more: How Jim Chanos outplayed Michael Saylor: short MSTR, long BTC
Selling MSTR and buying BTC, just like Michael Saylor
The CFTC defines arbitrage as buying and selling identical or equivalent instruments to capture a price discrepancy.
Although MSTR is certainly related to Strategy’s BTC holdings, it’s neither identical nor exchangeable. Indeed, Strategy disclaims that MSTR gives stockholders no ownership interest in, nor redemption right to, its BTC.
According to the company, MSTR offers “amplified exposure” to BTC.
MSTR often trades erratically and idiosyncratically, so timing an entry and exit takes skill by a capital markets operator.
The mNAV premium of MSTR to BTC holdings has fluctuated wildly over Strategy’s corporate lifespan. Since December 2020 when Strategy had amassed over 70,000 BTC, the basic mNAV of MSTR has traded between a 0.5x low to a 3.7x high.
Chanos was able to capture an mNAV decline, per Protos’ prior reporting, from a late-2024 entry near 2.5x basic mNAV to his November 2025 exit near 1.23x.
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