Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy buys $347 million in Bitcoin following recent upswing
After a strong month for the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, MicroStrategy is adding to its longstanding Bitcoin bet.
The company, led by cofounder and chairman Michael Saylor, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday that it had bought 12,333 coins for about $347 million between the end of April and Tuesday.
The newest purchase brings its total Bitcoin inventory to 152,333—acquired for $4.52 billion, at an average price of $29,668, according to a tweet by Saylor.
MicroStrategy has acquired an additional 12,333 BTC for ~$347.0 million at an average price of $28,136 per #bitcoin. As of 6/27/23 @MicroStrategy hodls 152,333 $BTC acquired for ~$4.52 billion at an average price of $29,668 per bitcoin. $MSTR https://t.co/joHo1gEnR0
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) June 28, 2023
Bitcoin on Wednesday morning was trading down about 2%, at $30,200.
The business software company purchased 1,054 Bitcoin in April for about $29.3 million in cash—at an average price of $28,016.
Under Saylor’s leadership—he stepped down as CEO in August but remains chairman, with a majority stake in the company—MicroStrategy started acquiring billions of dollars in Bitcoin as Saylor reasoned that inflation would render cash useless. Since 2020, the company has taken several massive losses on this gamble.
MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin was worth about $5.9 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2022, but it’s fallen about 22% since then. Since the company began betting on Bitcoin in 2020, its stock has often correlated with Bitcoin’s price fluctuations.
Shares traded at about $123 in July 2020 before Saylor began the Bitcoin buying spree, and they reached a high of $1,272 in February 2021. As of Wednesday morning, the stock was trading near $322.
Despite the losses, Saylor has not wavered in his commitment to the cryptocurrency. Earlier this month, the MicroStrategy chairman said he believes Bitcoin could eventually make up 80% of the crypto market. In June, Bitcoin surpassed 50% dominance in the market for the first time in two years.
“The entire industry,” he told Bloomberg earlier this month, “is kind of destined to be rationalized down to a Bitcoin-focused industry, with maybe a half-a-dozen to a dozen other proof-of-work tokens.”
