MicroStrategy, the Michael Saylor-owned enterprise software maker that is the largest publicly-listed holder of Bitcoin, kicked off 2024 by purchasing more BTC. The firm’s blockbuster gambit on the premier cryptocurrency has certainly paid off so far. With Bitcoin rocketing past $52,000, MicroStrategy’s stash has accrued an unrealized profit of over $4 billion.
MicroStrategy has been stacking Bitcoin since the second quarter of 2020 under the leadership of then CEO and now Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, accumulating as much as 190,000 Bitcoins as of the end of January as a hedge against inflation. The company paid a total of $5.93 billion for the BTC stash.
In early December 2023, the Tyson, Virginia-based firm was sitting on a profit of around $1.3 billion, but that’s since ballooned thanks to BTC’s more than 21% price upsurge since the beginning of 2024.
With Bitcoin trading for $52,220 at publication time and surpassing the $1 trillion market capitalization, the value of MicroStrategy’s holdings has grown to roughly $9.9 billion, or more than $4 billion in profit. Bitcoin has not seen such a high level since December 2021.
One of the catalysts buoying Bitcoin along its ascent is the massive flow of Wall Street money into spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which have now been trading for a whole month. The new Bitcoin products accumulated a total of 4,115 Bitcoin, worth approximately $215 million, as observed by Farside Investors. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF was responsible for the lion’s share of the inflows, with a staggering 4,843 BTC, valued at $251 million at press time.
MicroStrategy’s Saylor recently theorized that spot BTC ETFs trading is driving the token’s price higher as it’s created an enormous imbalance in the supply/demand equation, owing to 10 years of pent-up longing for a BTC product that’s easily accessible by traditional retail and institutional investors.
This comes ahead of the highly-awaited halving event, slated for April. The Bitcoin blockchain will undergo a transformation that will see miners who secure the network and mint BTC have their rewards slashed by 50%. Simply put, this means that the alpha crypto will become scarcer than it already is, and hence people will pay more for it. This year’s halving might be more boosterish, given that the Bitcoin network is becoming more useful and inclusive.
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