Microstrategy is not done stacking Bitcoin, despite being one of the most active institutional buyers in the market. The firm announced today that it had purchased an additional $15 million worth of Bitcoin. It now holds over 90,000 BTC, becoming one of the largest hodlers in the market.
Microstrategy has become synonymous with institutional BTC accumulation in recent months. Led by Michael Saylor, one of the most vocal Bitcoin bulls, the firm is responsible for a spike in corporate interest in BTC as a hedge against the U.S dollar. As ZyCrypto reported a week ago, the enterprise software firm bought 19,452 BTC at $1.026 billion.
Now, the firm has made yet another purchase, this time much smaller than its usual purchases. In an SEC filing, the Virginia-based firm stated, “On March 1, 2021, MicroStrategy Incorporated announced that it had purchased approximately 328 bitcoins for $15.0 million in cash, at an average price of approximately $45,710 per bitcoin, inclusive of fees and expenses.”
As of today, the firm now holds 90,859 BTC which it acquired at an aggregate purchase price of $2.186 billion. This puts the average price of each BTC they own at $24,063.
Microstrategy’s BTC stash is now worth around $4.39 billion. This translates to over $2.2 billion in profits for the firm from its BTC bet. The company’s shares have benefitted from this accumulation. Today, upon announcing the new BTC purchase, its shares gained 4.56%.
Over the past three months, the shares have gained 131.6%, almost matching Bitcoin which has gained 156.3% in that time. Before it started accumulating Bitcoin, its market cap stood at $1 billion. It’s now over $8 billion.
A Game of Accumulation
Microstrategy is now the public company that holds the largest Bitcoin stash. At 90,859 BTC, this is now 0.433% of the total BTC in supply. It ranks ahead of Tesla at 48,000 BTC, Galaxy Digital at 16,402 BTC, and Square which owns 8,027 BTC.
This is mainly down to Saylor, a Bitcoin maximalist who believes it’s the asset of the future. He believes that BTC will become the saving method of choice for billions of people in the near future. “We’re going to see a day when 7-8 billion people have a bar of digital gold on their phone, and they’re using it to store their life savings with it,” he claimed.
Saylor’s Bitcoin endeavors have also inevitably raised eyebrows. Marc Litchfield, a financial adviser is one of those that can barely believe that a board of directors allowed such a huge bet on Bitcoin. He cited BTC’s volatility as a key factor that should worry the board.
Richard Levin, a lawyer at South Carolina-based law firm Nelson Mullins, also voiced his concerns. Speaking to the New York Times, he stated, “Regulators could have concerns. Any publicly-traded company bringing a digital asset onto its balance sheet needs to proceed with caution. It’s fine to buy an asset because it is appreciating, but companies need to tread carefully to avoid the appearance that they are acquiring it to generate hype.”
