MicroStrategy Inc., the largest corporate buyer of Bitcoin, made the smallest purchase of the cryptocurrency in more than two years after the company’s co-founder dropped his CEO title last month to focus on the company’s digital-asset strategy.
(Bloomberg) — MicroStrategy Inc., the largest corporate buyer of Bitcoin, made the smallest purchase of the cryptocurrency in more than two years after the company’s co-founder dropped his CEO title last month to focus on the company’s digital-asset strategy.
The enterprise-software maker bought 301 Bitcoin for about $6 million, at an average price of about $19,851, the company said in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday. The purchases were made with excess cash. The aggregate purchase is already underwater, with Bitcoin trading at less than $19,000.
As of Sept. 19, MicroStrategy and its subsidiaries held an about 130,000 Bitcoin, which were acquired at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $3.98 billion and an average purchase price of about $30,639 per token. MicroStrategy’s aggregate holdings have dropped in value by about $1.5 billion, or around 38% since it first started buying the virtual currency in 2020.
Earlier this month, the company filed with the SEC to sell as much as $500 million in stock with proceeds potentially being used to buy more of the cryptocurrency.
On Aug. 2, co-founder Michael Saylor gave up his chief executive officer role to focus on the company’s Bitcoin strategy. That was the same day the Tysons Corner, Virginia-based company reported a loss of more than $1 billion related to the second-quarter plunge in the price of the cryptocurrency. Saylor, who co-founded the company in 1989, continues to serve as executive chairman.
Shares of MicroStrategy fell about 3.5% to $199 as of 9:38 a.m. in New York. They’ve tumbled about 64% this year, about equal to the slide in the price of Bitcoin during the same period.
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