In their latest Bitcoin investment, MicroStrategy revealed on Monday that they've acquired an additional $1.5 billion worth in Bitcoin last week. This purchase of 15,400 bitcoins broadens the company's total to 402,100, equating to almost 2% of the finite 21 million supply. According to BitcoinTreasuries.net, MicroStrategy stands as the second-largest holder of Bitcoin in public markets, trailing BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The recent batch of bitcoins was procured at an average cost of $95,976 per bitcoin. Michael Saylor, the company’s chairman, hinted at this acquisition over the weekend on platform X. Despite MicroStrategy shares experiencing a nearly 1% drop in Monday's trading, they've seen a stunning 500% surge year-to-date. At the same time, bitcoin's trading price dipped below $96,000, a 1.4% decrease.
Since 2020, Saylor has championed the practice of publicly-traded firms preserving bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. He argues that this is a viable strategy, and as it gains popularity in 2024, analysts predict it may stabilize prices of the leading cryptocurrency during volatile periods.
Aside from Tesla, which maintained a billion-dollar worth of bitcoin holdings despite selling most, other large-cap tech companies haven't been actively purchasing bitcoin. Saylor is striving to alter this reality, recently encouraging Microsoft to invest in the digital asset. He shared his persuasive pitch to the Microsoft board on December 1, arguing that allocating resources to bitcoin, rather than distributing dividends or conducting buybacks, could reduce shareholder risk and enhance enterprise value.
This proposal is in line with a request from the National Center for Public Policy Research. The conservative policy-supporting think tank has suggested an assessment of investing in bitcoin, a measure which has previously been advised against by the Microsoft board for shareholders.