By Mat Di Salvo
Image: Shutterstock
Bitcoin had a terrific quarter—up over 68% since the start of the year—and that’s led software giant MicroStrategy to double down on its crypto bet just as the company’s initial investment closes in on profitability.
The software company today announced it had bought another 1,045 coins, or $29.3 million into the asset. Now, MicroStrategy has spent a total of $4.1 billion on the world’s biggest cryptocurrency—making it the public company with the largest stash of Satoshis in the world.
Its long-term bet on the cryptocurrency is close to becoming profitable after the asset had wild price swings since 2020: its 140,000 BTC were bought at an average price of $29,803 per coin—meaning that if the asset jumps in value by 6%, or $1,780.91, the company will have made a profit.
The latest buy comes as Bitcoin has a great start to 2023: it is currently trading for $27,958 per coin, according to CoinGecko data. At the start of the year it was priced at $16,615.
But despite soaring in value this year, Bitcoin is still down 60% from the all-time high of $69,044 it touched in November 2021.
MicroStrategy’s founder Michael Saylor decided to buy Bitcoin back in 2020 as a hedge against inflation just as COVID lockdowns began shutting down global economies. The investment appeared prescient the following year as Bitcoin went on a historic bull run.
Saylor—who was CEO back then—claimed at the time that Bitcoin was a “dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash.”
MicroStrategy has since increased its holdings by slowly buying 140,000 BTC over the past two and a half years, and Saylor is still convinced it is a safe investment.
“Our [MicroStrategy’s] strategy is to buy and hold Bitcoin, and the key for us is to be consistent, transparent and responsible in the pursuit of that strategy,” he said last month.
MicroStrategy stock is also up by over 95% since the first Bitcoin buy; Saylor has said that buying shares in the company is a way investors can get safe exposure to Bitcoin.