MicroStrategy (MSTR), a bitcoin-accumulating business-intelligence software company, said it bought another 4,167 BTC for around $190.5 million. This brings the total amount of Bitcoin that MicroStrategy has purchased to 40,824 BTC, worth approximately $2.23 billion at current prices.
The move makes MicroStrategy one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin. The company now owns a total of 70,470 BTC, which are worth approximately $3.4 billion at current prices.
Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a publicly traded company with a market capitalization of roughly $5 billion. The company has been a vocal advocate of bitcoin, with Saylor becoming one of the most prominent CEO backers of the cryptocurrency.
Strong Advocacy for Bitcoin
MicroStrategy’s CEO Michael Saylor has been a strong advocate for Bitcoin, and has even urged other companies to follow in MicroStrategy’s footsteps and buy Bitcoin as a way to hedge against inflation. With interest in Bitcoin seemingly growing by the day, it’s likely that we’ll see more companies make similar moves in the near future.
In September, MicroStrategy announced it had purchased $250 million worth of bitcoin, and less than two months later, the company revealed it had bought an additional $175 million worth of the digital asset.
Saylor has said he believes bitcoin will eventually replace gold as a store of value. “Bitcoin is a dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash,” he said in October. “When we added Bitcoin to our capital allocation strategy, we saw it as a way to enhance returns on our excess cash.”
Crypto Against Inflation
MicroStrategy’s CEO Michael Saylor said that the purchase was made to hedge against macroeconomic uncertainty. “This investment reflects our belief that Bitcoin, as the world’s most widely-adopted cryptocurrency, is a dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash,” he said.
The company also revealed that it has taken out a $250 million loan to buy more Bitcoin. This is a significant move by MicroStrategy, and it could lead to other companies investing in Bitcoin.
Asset Diversification
Michael Saylor said that the purchase was made in order to hedge against inflation and diversify the company’s assets. He also said that he believes Bitcoin will eventually replace gold as a store of value. Saylor has been a vocal proponent of Bitcoin, and has urged other companies to buy the cryptocurrency. He has even offered to help them set up their own Bitcoin purchases.
Companies Following Suit
MicroStrategy is not the only company to have recently invested in bitcoin. Square, a payments company founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, bought $50 million worth of bitcoin in October. And earlier this month, hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones said that he had invested around 1% of his assets in bitcoin, calling it a “great inflation trade.”
Bitcoin was trading at $33,819 Monday morning, up more than 4% from the previous 24 hours. The digital asset has seen a surge in price over the past few months, hitting an all-time high above $34,000 on Sunday.