MicroStrategy buys $414M more bitcoin in Q4

MicroStrategy Inc. bought $414.4 million worth of bitcoin — about 7,002 units — from Oct. 1 to Nov. 29, the Tysons-based business software company reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

The company now holds about 121,044 bitcoins, for which it paid $3.57 billion total. The average purchase price of each bitcoin was about $29,534. As of 3:33 p.m. Wednesday, bitcoins were selling for $56,900 per unit, putting MicroStrategy’s total holdings at a value of about $6.89 billion.

Bitcoin reached a high of $69,000 in early November. Last week, bitcoin hit a low of $53,549 per unit, but its price climbed back above $58,000 Monday. When MicroStrategy reported holdings of 114,042 bitcoins on Oct. 28, the coins were selling for $65,875.50 each.

From Oct. 1 to Nov. 29, MicroStrategy raised $414.4 million from the sale of 571,000 shares through its open market sale agreement with Jefferies Group LLC. As of 4:01 p.m., shares were trading for $705.47.

MicroStrategy announced its first bitcoin purchase in August 2020, saying it had converted $250 million from its cash holdings to more than 21,000 bitcoins, making it one of the first public companies to convert its cash treasury reserves into cryptocurrency as a store of value. The strategy is a move that MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor believes will protect the company’s money from inflation, and one that some traditional finance experts caution against.

As of Oct. 28, MicroStrategy employed 2,057 people, 787 of whom were in the United States. The company offers cloud-based business data analytics software.