MicroStrategy continues its Bitcoin (BTC) acquisition as the halving nears. Michael Saylor just announced another 850 BTC purchase made by the company last January amounting to $37.2 million, which increases its total holdings to 190,000 BTC.
Microstrategy’s Latest Bitcoin Purchase
According to the latest report of MicroStrategy, it bought 850 BTC in January 2024 for $37.2 million. This means it now owns a total of 190,000 BTC purchased at $5.93 billion or an average of $31,224 per Bitcoin as of February 5, 2024. In today’s rate at around $42,900 per BTC (as of 4:45 UTC), this already amounts to $8.15 billion, which means an unrealized gain of around $2.22 billion for the analytics firm.
There’s an overall bullish sentiment in the cryptocurrency market right now, thanks to the success of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US, the upcoming halving in Bitcoin mining rewards, growing institutional adoption of crypto and tokenized assets, and the looming economic pressures in the US as well as China. With these, Bitcoin is expected to gain a new all-time high this year that may surpass its 2021 peak.
Saylor emphasized in his earlier statements that they’re not selling. Well, it remains to be seen when prices go off the roof. But then again, if demand further overwhelms the circulating supply, this would give MicroStrategy unprecedented control over the digital asset, especially if its acquisition continues.
The present circulating supply of Bitcoin sits at 19.62 million. This means MicroStrategy now owns 0.96% of the float.
BTC Gamble of MicroStrategy Paying Off
In June 2020, MicroStrategy announced its initial purchase of 12,333 Bitcoin for $347 million. This made it the first publicly traded company to allocate its capital in the digital asset. Following that, the company displayed major growth in its share price at around 305%, which even dwarfed tech stocks like Google and Microsoft. It has also overtaken Bitcoin in performance by 45%.
“We don’t need to address any of the currency criticisms anymore,” Saylor told Cointelegraph in an interview. “Simply as a store of value, there’s no reason Bitcoin can’t continue to outperform and 100X from where it is right now.”
There are concerns, however, that the continuous allocation of MicroStrategy in the digital asset may turn its financials more volatile. This could make its accounting very challenging according to Bloomberg.
Nevertheless, Saylor’s optimism runs high for the crypto asset this year.
“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 die-hard Bitcoin supporter said. “The next 15 years will be a regulated, institutional, high growth period for Bitcoin, very different from the last 15 years.”