MicroStrategy goes on $11bn holiday shopping spree in record Bitcoin binge

Michael Saylor, founder and chairman of MicroStrategy, is Christmas’ most predictable gift giver.

All he ever does is buy Bitcoin.

On Monday, his publicly-traded software company announced that it had acquired more than 5,000 of the cryptocurrency.

That caps a frenetic holiday shopping spree.

MicroStrategy has gobbled up about 113,000 Bitcoins since mid-November, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

At current prices, that’s about $11 billion.

Microstrategy’s buying spree from mid-November to December is its largest month-long splurge on record.

The company’s Bitcoin treasury now numbers more than 444,000 Bitcoins, or about $44 billion.

Nasdaq 100

MicroStrategy’s substantial Bitcoin purchases come as the firm has ridden a soaring stock to land in the Nasdaq 100, an index of the largest non-financial companies on the stock exchange.

Since January, its stock price has more than quintupled to now trade at about $360.

It’s a surprising surge for a company whose actual business, selling data analytics software to large enterprise businesses, has taken back seat to its never-ending purchases of Bitcoin.

Traders and Wall Street analysts see the company’s stock as a proxy, which moves in lockstep with Bitcoin’s rises and falls, for the cryptocurrency.

To fund its Bitcoin purchases, MicroStrategy uses surplus cash from its software business as well as equity and debt issuances.

It’s a strategy some analysts have criticised.

“Eventually, the debt will far eclipse equity, the trading premium will disappear, the conversion prices on the notes will feel unreachable and equity price will collapse under the weight of senior debt, particularly during a gnarly Bitcoin dip,” Tatiana Koffman, author of the “Myth of Money,” recently said on X.

Crypto market movers

• Bitcoin is up 5.1% in the past 24 hours to trade at $98,705.
• Ethereum is also up 3.7% to trade at $3,521.

What we’re reading

• How Bitcoin predictions from Cathie Wood, Mike Novogratz, and Michael Saylor played out in 2024 — DL News
• Crypto enters its ‘App Era’ — Milk Road
• This will be the biggest narrative of 2025 — Milk Road
• 1.6 Trillion BONK Tokens Worth $53.5 Million to Be Burned as Part of BURNmas — Unchained
• The controversial ICO is back. Pundits promise this time is different — DL News

Ben Weiss is DL News’ Dubai Correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at bweiss@dlnews.com.