- MicroStrategy buys 3,000 bitcoins for $155 million, increasing its total holdings to 193,000 BTC.
- This is worth over $10 billion, chairman says MicroStrategy is different from bitcoin ETFs and has a long-term vision for bitcoin.
MicroStrategy, a business intelligence software company, announced on Monday that it has purchased another 3,000 bitcoins for about $155 million, bringing its total bitcoin holdings to 193,000 BTC. The company’s executive chairman and co-founder, Michael Saylor, said that the company and its subsidiaries now own nearly $10 billion worth of bitcoin, acquired at an average price of $31,544 per BTC.
MicroStrategy became the first publicly traded company to buy bitcoin as part of its capital allocation strategy in 2020. It has been steadily increasing its bitcoin exposure ever since. The company has raised funds through issuance and sale of shares under sales agreement to finance its bitcoin purchases. The latest acquisition was made using cash on hand, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on February 26.
Strategic Bitcoin Holdings by Microstrategy
The company acquired the 3,000 bitcoins at an average price of $51,813 per BTC, between February 15 and February 25, 2024. In December 2023, it made a profit of $2 billion and this has only been doubled since then due to the Bitcoin’s price rally from January 2024. Listing of Bitcoin ETFs is pushing the price up.
Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman and Co-founder, Microstrategy, said:
“2024 is the year of the birth of Bitcoin as an institutional-grade asset class, in fact, it’s the first new asset class of the modern era.The next 15 years will be a regulated, institutional, high growth period for Bitcoin, very different from the last 15 years. I believe bitcoin will one day have a market value of $100 trillion.”
Saylor, who is a vocal advocate of bitcoin, said that MicroStrategy stands apart from the ETFs because it is an operating company that generates cash flow and profits. It does not charge any fees or expenses for holding bitcoin. He also said that MicroStrategy has a long-term vision and does not intend to sell its bitcoin anytime soon.
MicroStrategy has entrusted 98% of its bitcoin holdings to Fidelity Custody, a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, one of the largest asset managers in the world. The remaining 2% is diversified with Coinbase Prime, a leading crypto exchange and custodian.
MicroStrategy’s stock (NASDAQ: MSTR) also benefited from the news, rising 1.71% in the pre-market trading on Monday. The stock has soared more than 300% since the beginning of 2023, when the company started buying bitcoin. the stock is up by 40% in one month and 160% up in a year.
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