MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin Holdings Top $8 Billion With Latest Purchase

(Bloomberg) — MicroStrategy Inc., the enterprise software maker which has made buying Bitcoin as part of its corporate strategy, increased its total holdings of the cryptocurrency to more than $8 billion through additional purchases this month.

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The Tysons Corner, Virginia-based company run by Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor acquired 14,620 Bitcoin for $616 million in cash from Nov. 30 to Dec. 26, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. That brings its total holding to 189,150 Bitcoin, or to almost 1% of the 19.58 million Bitcoin outstanding.

Saylor, the chairman and co-founder of MicroStrategy, started buying the digital asset in 2020 as an inflation hedge and alternative to holding cash on the company’s balance sheet. That has made MicroStrategy a Bitcoin proxy for investors that want to gain exposure to Bitcoin but are not willing to hold it directly.

Saylor in an interview on Bloomberg TV last week said that an exchange-traded fund physically backed by Bitcoin is not a threat to MicroStrategy since its stock is a leveraged bet with no fees. The company has tapped into debt financing and shares sales to fund its Bitcoin purchases.

The average price for the latest acquisition was $42,110, while the average price for the total holding is $31,168, according to the company’s filing.

MicroStrategy’s shares have surged over 300% this year, outperforming Bitcoin as it rallied about 150% during this same period. Bitcoin rose about 1.5% to $42,963 on Wednesday.

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