MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings top US$8 billion with latest purchase

MICROSTRATEGY, the enterprise software maker which has made buying Bitcoin part of its corporate strategy, increased its total holdings of the cryptocurrency to more than US$8 billion through additional purchases this month.

The Virginia-based company run by Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor acquired 14,620 Bitcoin for US$616 million in cash from Nov 30 to Dec 26, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday (Dec 27). That brings its total holding to 189,150 Bitcoin, or almost 1 per cent 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 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 share sales to fund its Bitcoin purchases.

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

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