Tysons-based tech company MicroStrategy continues to grow its cryptocurrency collection, acquiring more than 9,200 more bitcoins in one week in March.
From March 11 to March 18, MicroStrategy acquired approximately 9,245 bitcoins for approximately $623 million in cash, according to the company’s Tuesday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. On Monday, MicroStrategy completed a private offering of convertible senior notes, gaining about $592.3 million in net proceeds, which it used in its most recent bitcoin acquisitions.
As of March 18, MicroStrategy and its subsidiaries — believed to be the largest corporate bitcoin holders in the world — owned approximately 214,246 bitcoins, purchased for about $7.53 billion total. The average purchase price per bitcoin was about $35,160, including fees and expenses. As of 4:05 p.m. Tuesday, bitcoins were selling for $64,006.92, according to CoinMarketCap, valuing MicroStrategy’s total bitcoin holdings at about $13.7 billion, or about 45% more than the amount MicroStrategy has paid for the cryptocurrency since 2020.
In the morning on March 5, bitcoin hit a record high of $69,324.58 per coin, valuing MicroStrategy’s holdings at the time at $13.38 billion. By 4:30 p.m. that day, though, bitcoin values had dropped, and coins were selling for $64,045.35 on cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
Bitcoin fell to about $62,400 around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. On cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, bitcoin briefly crashed to $8,900 Monday night, potentially “due to a large number of sell orders totaling $55.5 million,” according to a Bespoke Investment Group blog post. BitMEX is now “investigating potential misconduct by traders on our Bitcoin-USDT Spot market,” the company said in a post on X. As of 4:23 p.m., Bitcoin was selling for $63,601 on the exchange.
MicroStrategy shares were trading for $1,417.50 at market close Tuesday, but dropped in after hours trading to $1,389 as of 4:26 p.m.
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 investment strategy was led by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, who stepped down as CEO after the company’s August 2022 earnings report. In the report, the company disclosed that it had paid a total of $3.977 billion for its bitcoin, which at that time had fallen to a market value of about $2.451 billion. MicroStrategy also had taken on about $2.4 billion in loans and debt to acquire bitcoin. At points in 2022, the currency fell below $20,000 to prices it had not seen since 2020.
Huntington Ingalls Industries’ McLean-based Mission Technologies division won a $305 million Defense Intelligence Agency contract to provide intelligence analysis and operational support services for the Joint Intelligence Operations Center – Korea, assisting the United States Forces Korea (USFK), HII announced Tuesday.
Under the recompeted task order, HII will also assist USFK with organizing the Korean Theater of Operations intelligence activities.
The contract has a five-year term and is an extension of work performed under a previous contract the DIA awarded in 2019.
“We are excited about the opportunity to expand our relationship with the USFK and support its important mission while working in close coordination with the joint staff, service components and intelligence agencies,” Todd Gentry, president of Mission Technologies’ C5ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) business group, said in a statement. “Our experts have a long history assessing and advising on national security issues and are committed to protecting U.S. regional interests.”
Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries is the nation’s largest military shipbuilder. The Fortune 500 company employs more than 44,000 workers and is Virginia’s largest industrial employer. Its Newport News Shipbuilding division is the United States’ only manufacturer of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The Mission Technologies division has more than 7,000 employees and more than 100 facilities globally.
Gaming revenues from Virginia’s three casinos totaled $57.3 million in February, according to Virginia Lottery data released Friday.
The Bristol Casino: Future Home of Hard Rock temporary facility opened July 2022, making it Virginia’s first casino. The Virginia Lottery Board approved HR Bristol’s casino license in April 2022. Last month, the Bristol casino generated about $11.67 million from its 911 slots and about $1.67 million from its 29 table games, for a total of about $13.3 million in adjusted gaming revenues (wagers minus winnings).
Rivers Casino Portsmouth opened in January 2023, becoming Virginia’s first permanent casino. The lottery board had previously approved its license in November 2022. In February, the Portsmouth casino reported about $25 million in AGR, of which about $18.2 million came from its 1,468 slots and the remaining roughly $7 million from its 81 table games.
The temporary Caesars Virginia casino in Danville opened in May 2023, after receiving its casino license in April 2023. In January, Caesars Virginia held a topping-off ceremony for the 12-story hotel that will be part of the permanent resort casino slated to open late this year. The casino reported about $13.98 million from its 808 slots and $4.75 million from its 33 table games, totaling about $18.7 million.
February’s casino gaming revenues were an almost 8.5% increase from the $52.86 million reported in January.
Virginia law assesses a graduated tax on a casino’s adjusted gaming revenue. For the month of February, taxes from casino AGRs totaled $10.32 million.
The host cities of Portsmouth and Danville received 6% of their respective casinos’ AGRs: about $1.5 million and $1.12 million, respectively. For the Bristol casino, 6% of its adjusted gaming revenue — about $800,800 last month — goes to the Regional Improvement Commission, which the General Assembly established to distribute Bristol casino tax funds throughout Southwest Virginia.
The Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund receives 0.8% of total taxes, which was almost $82,570 last month. The Family and Children’s Trust Fund, which funds local family violence prevention and treatment programs, receives 0.2% of the monthly total, about $20,640 in February.
One other casino is currently underway in Virginia: the $500 million HeadWaters Resort & Casino in Norfolk. The developers — a partnership between the King William-based Pamunkey Indian Tribe and Tennessee billionaire Jon Yarbrough — submitted new plans to the city, aiming to start continuous, rather than phased, construction in spring 2024.
The Norfolk Architectural Review Board is the first body to review plans in the approval process, which ends with the Norfolk City Council. The board was set to review the new plans in January, but the developers have continued the review indefinitely.
“The Pamunkey Tribe has continued to work diligently with its architecture and engineering teams to produce the additional design work necessary to address the direction provided by [Norfolk] City Council. Until that work is completed, we have asked for a continuance before the ARB,” Jay Smith, spokesperson for HeadWaters Resort & Casino, said in a statement after the Architectural Review Board’s Jan. 22 meeting.
“As soon as we are confident that the plans meet the needs of the city and Tribe, we will ask to be put on the ARB agenda,” Smith said in the statement. “We know so many residents of Norfolk share our eagerness to open HeadWaters Resort & Casino, and once design is completed, we will employ an aggressive construction schedule to bring this project to life.” The casino must obtain its license from the lottery board by November 2025, or the 2020 referendum becomes null and void under state law.
Following Richmond voters’ rejection of a proposed $562 million casino for the second time, Petersburg lawmakers sought to hold a referendum in their city. A bill that would replace Richmond with Petersburg on the list of cities eligible to host a casino in Virginia has passed the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates, but the House added an amendment that requires a second vote on the bill during a “subsequent regular or special session,” so the bill is stalled for now. A second bill that would have given Fairfax County a casino referendum has also been tabled until 2025’s session.
MullenLowe Global CEO Kristen Cavallo, formerly also CEO of Richmond-based marketing and advertising firm The Martin Agency, is retiring from her role to pursue political and social activism, MullenLowe and Martin parent Interpublic Group of Cos. (IPG) announced Monday.
Cavallo became CEO of MullenLowe Global in November 2022 and continued to lead Martin until January, when Danny Robinson was named CEO of the Richmond firm. Cavallo, who became Martin’s first female CEO in December 2017, remained in Richmond.
“One of my favorite things about advertising is how it satisfies your curiosity — I’ve worked across multiple industries and with brands of all sizes,” Cavallo said in a statement. “I’ve also learned how to stand firm in times of uncertainty and to look for what’s possible in the heart of a problem. I can’t think of a better launch pad for the rest of my life.”
Cavallo supports the Democratic Party, she told AdAge, adding that she supports “anyone that’s not trying to take away my rights or my daughter’s rights.”
Cavallo was the 2023 Virginia Business Person of the Year in recognition of her business strategy and successes at the helm of Martin, and then MullenLowe Global, as an international leader in advertising and marketing.
“Unless you’ve been living under an advertising rock,” Robinson said in a statement Monday, “you have a pretty good idea of the transformative acts that have helped define Kristen’s time as CEO at Martin. With her dedication to defending our value as an industry, she’s a great example of leadership. And Kristen wields her influence with a combination of passion and grace. She helped shape the trajectory of my career, and reinforced for all of us at Martin what it feels like to be fearless. Like so many of us, I’ve always been proud to call her my partner and my friend.”
As MullenLowe CEO, Cavallo is responsible for 4,500 employees, with offices in 55 markets worldwide. Alex Leikikh, chairman of MullenLowe Group and executive vice president of IPG, will return to the role of MullenLowe global CEO on March 31, when Cavallo’s retirement becomes effective. Cavallo will remain in an advisory capacity for MullenLowe and Martin until 2025.
Leikikh was part of the management team that hired Cavallo at Mullen in 2011, and one of her conditions for becoming Martin’s CEO was that she report directly to him. In November 2023, Leikikh told Virginia Business that Cavallo had a strong moral compass and was self-assured: “The thing I love about Kristen probably the most is … she asks neither for forgiveness nor permission. She just does what she thinks is right, and so far, she’s been pretty successful at it.”
In a statement Monday, Leikikh said, “I’ve worked with Kristen for over a dozen years, which has been a highlight of my career. She’s a brilliant strategist, insightful client whisperer, creative champion and people nurturer. Kristen is also an intrepid global explorer who ties her personal experiences and worldview to our work. We will miss that, but no doubt Kristen will have a notable impact on the world beyond advertising, and we’ll all stay tuned in to see what she can accomplish.”
Cavallo told AdAge she isn’t looking to run for any political office at the moment, but is hoping to volunteer on campaigns over the next two years. She said she also could see herself working with organizations that align with her ideals, like Planned Parenthood or the American Civil Liberties Union, but added she would need to do more research to find the right organization.
Cavallo first entered the advertising industry in 1994, when she joined Mullen as a strategic planner. A year later, she jumped to Boston-based ad agency Arnold Worldwide, where she served as a senior strategic planner. In 1998, she joined Martin as a senior vice president and group planning director, moving up to director of business development in 2005, before returning to Mullen in 2011 as chief strategy officer. In 2014, she was named president of Mullen’s Boston office. Following IPG’s 2015 merger of Lowe and Partners with Mullen, Cavallo became MullenLowe Group’s U.S. chief strategy and growth officer.
In December 2017, IPG named Cavallo as Martin’s first female CEO, replacing then-CEO Matt Williams. She took the helm at Martin in the wake of highly publicized sexual harassment allegations against Martin’s former chief creative officer, Joe Alexander, who left the ad agency less than two weeks before Cavallo was named CEO. Alexander has denied the allegations and any wrongdoing, and he filed a $50.4 million-plus lawsuit against Martin, alleging defamation, breach of contract and other claims, although only breach of contract had not been dismissed by 2024. In February, a Richmond Circuit judge nonsuited the case at Alexander’s request. His new attorney told Richmond BizSense he planned to refile at a later date.
“As I think about where I’ll direct my energies next,” Cavallo said in a statement, “I’ve been wondering if many of our nation’s problems are ultimately marketing and communications problems: how we connect with one another, how we unify, how we fulfill our promises. These questions have been really taking over my headspace. I want to apply what I’ve learned to the kinds of issues I care most about at this stage in my life.”
The Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and Central Virginia housing markets showed positive trends last month, with month-over-month and year-over-year increases in home sales and median sales prices.
Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia home sales in February grew 2.2% from February 2023, marking the first year-over-year growth in the market’s home sales since November 2021, according to data the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors released Tuesday.
Northern Virginia had 1,020 home sales in February, up year-over-year and up from 771 units sold in January. Total sold volume in February also rose from last year, increasing 16.3% to $841.159 million. Before February, NVAR’s last recorded month with year-over-year growth in home sales was November 2021, when 2,124 homes sold in the region, an 11% increase from November 2020.
“Spring is always strong for the Northern Virginia real estate market, but this one is looking particularly positive as we are seeing more listings coming on the market as compared to a year ago, and those who are buying are willing to spend a little more,” David Raffinengo with KW Metro Center, an NVAR board member, said in a statement. “People are getting over the mortgage rate sticker shock, and with the potential for rates easing more, I believe we will see even more sellers willing to put their houses on the market.”
Homes sold faster than last year, staying on the market an average of 22 days — down 31.3% from February 2023 and down from January’s 29-day average.
Regional supply remained tight in February but grew slightly. The month’s supply of inventory (MSI) — a measure of how many months there would be homes on the market if no new inventory were added — stood at 0.9 months, up from the January MSI of 0.74 and the February 2023 MSI of 0.8.
Northern Virginia had 1,153 active listings last month, down 6.56% compared with February 2023. New pending sales in February totaled 1,177, down 2% from a year ago.
High demand continued to push prices up, according to NVAR. The median sold price for a home in February was $687,250, up 11.8% from a year ago and up from January’s median sales price of $650,000.
One local market had a 68.5% increase in its median sales price from February 2023. According to multiple listing service Bright MLS, only five homes sold in Falls Church last month, and the median sold price of those was $1.115 million.
NVAR reports home sales activity for Fairfax and Arlington counties, the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church, and the towns of Vienna, Herndon and Clifton.
The Bright MLS February housing market report on the Washington, D.C., metro includes a market outlook: “Buyers in the Washington, D.C., metro area have been frustrated by a lack of inventory, but it looks like there may be some relief on the way. In February, the number of new listings coming onto the market was 7.2% higher than a year ago; however, the market is still going to be very competitive across most of the region this spring,” according to the report.
Hampton Roads
The Hampton Roads market also had positive data points last month. The numbers of active listings, pending sales and settled sales increased month-over-month and year-over-year, according to the Real Estate Information Network (REIN).
February 2024 statistics for the Hampton Roads housing market. Image courtesy Real Estate Information Network
In February, active residential listings in the region totaled 3,568, up from 3,538 in January and up 13.9% from the 3,130 listings reported in February 2023.
Pending sales totaled 2,138, up from 1,837 in January and up from 2,058 a year ago. The region had 1,709 settled sales, up from 1,470 sales in January and 1,684 sales in February 2023.
“These are some encouraging signs as we approach the spring season,” REIN Board President Gary Lundholm, with The Real Estate Group, said in a statement. “Of course, things can change quickly in real estate, but the median number of days properties are on the market also declined from January, which is good news for home sellers.”
Hampton Roads houses were on the market for a median of 22 days last month, down 10 days from January but up two days from February 2023.
In February, the median sales price for Hampton Roads homes also increased year-over-year and month-over-month, standing at $327,500. In January, the median sales price was $320,500, and in February 2023, the MSP was $313,650.
The month’s supply of inventory was 1.73, a slight increase from the January MSI of 1.72 and up from 1.24 a year ago.
Founded in 1969, REIN is a regional multiple listing service that covers an area stretching from Williamsburg east to Virginia Beach and south across the North Carolina border.
Central Virginia
In Central Virginia, February residential property sales totaled 1,134, up 0.1% from last year, according to data from the Central Virginia Regional Multiple Listing Service (CVR MLS). In January, the market had 862 closed sales.
Pending sales were also up, at 1,311 in February, up 3.9% from February 2023 and up from 1,284 in January. New listings on the CVR MLS totaled 1,516, up 7.7% from a year ago and up from 1,418 in January.
Homes stayed on the market slightly longer, averaging 33 days, up one day from February 2023 and up from 28 days in January. The month’s supply of inventory stood steady at 1.4, the same as January and up from 1.2 last year.
The median sales price of homes sold in February in the region was $377,140, up 6.2% from the MSP of $355,000 reported last year and from January’s MSP of $367,500.
In the Richmond metro area — Richmond city and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico — the median sales price was $390,000, up 7.7% from February 2023’s MSP of $362,000. The metro area had 914 closed sales last month, up 6.3% from the 860 sales recorded in February 2023.
The CVR MLS monthly indicators report covers residential real estate activity, including single-family homes and townhomes/condos, in the counties of Amelia, Charles City, Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, King William, King and Queen, New Kent, Powhatan and Prince George and the cities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Petersburg and Richmond.
New Jersey-based cold and dry storage services provider FreezPak Logistics will invest $77.5 million to build a Suffolk facility, a project expected to create 80 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Thursday.
FreezPak will build a 245,000-square-foot cold storage facility in Suffolk to serve the mid-Atlantic region. The 80 new jobs will be in warehouse operations and sales, as well as general manager positions, according to Anthony Soto, a spokesperson for FreezPak Logistics.
“FreezPak’s decision to locate in the city of Suffolk demonstrates that Virginia is a supply chain destination, and its new facility will allow it to serve the entire mid-Atlantic region,” Youngkin said in a statement. “All of FreezPak’s products will go through the Port of Virginia, a logistical advantage that will increase efficiency and increase its direct access to markets.”
Established in 2001 by two brothers, FreezPak Logistics offers frozen, cooler and dry storage as well as third-party logistics services. The company currently has nine facilities operating — across New Jersey and Philadelphia and outside of Chicago and Miami, Florida — and three under construction, counting the Suffolk facility and one each in Jacksonville, Florida, and the Houston metro area.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the City of Suffolk and the Hampton Roads Alliance to secure the project, for which Virginia competed with Georgia and North Carolina. Youngkin approved a $175,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Suffolk.
FreezPak Logistics is eligible to receive state benefits from the Major Business Facility Job Tax Credit for full-time jobs created, as well as benefits from the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Grant Program. VEDP will support the insurer through its three-year Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP), which provides cash grant reimbursements for associated human resources costs after a company has had new employees on the payroll for at least 90 days.
“We sincerely appreciate Gov. Youngkin and his office’s support in securing incentives, a crucial factor in launching our project successfully,” Dave Saoud, co-founder and CEO of FreezPak Logistics, said in a statement. “We continue to expand our national footprint as a 100% family-owned business.”
Economic activity in the Federal Reserve’s Fifth District was little changed in recent weeks, according to the latest edition of the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, released March 6.
Published eight times per year, the Beige Book is based on anecdotal information about economic conditions gathered from the nation’s 12 Federal Reserve Banks. It is compiled from reports by bank and branch directors, as well as information gathered from business contacts, economists, market experts and other sources. The March release is an update from the Fed’s Jan. 17 report.
Here’s what the most recent Beige Book edition revealed about the direction the economy is taking:
Employment in the Fifth District grew at a moderate pace in the most recent reporting period, according to the Fed. Firms reported that skilled and trades workers, like engravers and aluminum welders, were more difficult to find than other workers, like advertising firm employees.
Price growth was largely unchanged from the January Beige Book report; year-over-year price growth remained moderately elevated. Prices received by nonmanufacturers grew about 4%, while the growth in prices received by manufacturers remained about 2.5%. Sources in both sectors expected price growth to moderate over the next six months.
Manufacturing activity in the Fifth District softened in recent weeks because of uncertain business conditions. One coffee manufacturer reported that difficulties getting freight through the Red Sea was increasing its production times and future costs. Several firms reported difficulty securing financing, and most contacts cited a shortage of qualified labor as a major issue.
Fifth District ports reported good underlying demand despite disruptions in the Panama and Suez canals that affected shipping schedules. Ports saw a slightly lower volume of loaded imports but an increase in consumer goods imports. Loaded export volumes were unchanged. Spot rates increased sharply as carriers tried to offset the higher costs resulting from longer transit times. The ports reported no stack congestion.
Some trucking freight volumes in the region declined because of winter weather, but underlying trucking demand was good, according to the Fed. In the less-than-truckload segment, companies reported increased demand in the consumer segment resulting from retailers restocking inventory. In the truckload segment, customers pushed to decrease their shipping costs, and rates fell. Although truck drivers were easier to find this period, mechanic and some office positions remained hard to fill.
Retailers in the Fifth District saw a slight decline in sales and customer foot traffic in the most recent cycle. Some firms attributed the decline to bad weather conditions, while a few home improvement and building supply retailers cited a slow real estate market and higher borrowing costs to finance home improvements. Hotel and restaurant respondents also reported a slight slowdown, although hotel revenues in the Northern Virginia market were up as hotels had steady occupancy rates and were able to increase room rates.
Residential real estate activity improved slightly, as pent-up demand remained. Firms reported an increase in listings and buyer activity, but said buyers were tentative because of high mortgage rates. Days on the market increased slightly but were still below historic averages. Construction costs started to moderate, although the market was constrained by difficulty finding land and receiving permitting.
The commercial real estate market activity improved slightly in the most recent reporting period. Firms upgraded their office space and moved away from central business districts, and landlords offered concessions or incentives to potential tenants instead of raising rents. Suburban retail space remained limited, with low vacancy rates and increased rental rates. New construction, especially for office and multifamily projects, was constrained by rising building costs and a lack of available financing.
Loan demand softened modestly, reported Fifth District financial institutions, because of higher interest rates and continued economic uncertainty. Deposit balances began to decline modestly, and competition for deposits remained high. Loan delinquency rates have started showing modest increases, mainly in unsecured personal and auto portfolios.
Overall, nonfinancial service providers in the region saw stable demand and revenues. Wages and the labor market stabilized some, becoming less challenging for nonfinancial firms.
The Alliance for Building Better Medicine — a group of public and private pharmaceutical manufacturers and research organizations in Richmond and Petersburg — will receive a $1 million award from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Richmond-based innovation incubator Activation Capital, which convened the alliance four years ago, announced last week the group would receive an NSF Regional Innovation Engines development award. The alliance members working with the awarded funds include Activation Capital, Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing, Virginia Commonwealth University and U.S. Pharmacopeia.
“This will give us $1 million as a coalition to design strategy, to design a business model and the growth trajectory for this alliance in the future,” Chandra Briggman, president and CEO of Activation Capital, told reporters Wednesday. “We’re really excited to report that and show the momentum that’s in the region around this cluster.”
In total, the Alliance for Building Better Medicine has 16 partners and 23 supporting organizations. The group has worked to grow the Richmond-Petersburg-area advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing cluster to address the national need for domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing to have a secure supply chain for medicines. Nearly 80% of the manufacturing facilities that produce active pharmaceutical ingredients are located outside the United States, according to a March 2023 staff report from the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
The Alliance for Building Better Medicine previously won a $52.9 million Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration, announced in September 2022. Local organizations provided $13.6 million in matching funds. In October 2023, the U.S. EDA designated the Richmond-Petersburg metropolitan statistical area an Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Tech Hub, after the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing led the alliance’s application. The 31 inaugural tech hubs are eligible to apply for the next phase of the program, which will invest between $50 million and $75 million in each of the five to 10 designated hubs.
“There is no greater community of people than those of the Richmond-Petersburg advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. Receiving one of the NSF Engine Development Awards, after the BBBRC grant award and Tech Hubs designation, is a resounding endorsement to continue the hard work, to push through the obstacles, to not stop until access to essential medicines needed to sustain life and conquer disease is a reality,” Robby Demeria, founding board chair of the Alliance for Building Better Medicine and chief corporate affairs officer for Phlow, said in a statement. “I could not be prouder to stand behind such purposeful, accomplished, brilliant, and dedicated volunteers on a mission to build better medicine.”
Activation Capital, an independent authority of the Virginia government, is an ecosystem development organization that focuses on growing life sciences and other advanced technology entrepreneurs and innovation. The organization also operates the Virginia Bio+Tech Park in Richmond and plans to build a 102,000-square-foot innovation center in the 34-acre park but is seeking an anchor tenant for the facility this spring before it will begin construction.
Tysons-based tech company MicroStrategy, the world’s largest corporate holder of bitcoin, has been riding a recent surge in the cryptocurrency, which hit an all-time high of $69,324.58 Tuesday morning before falling off somewhat in the afternoon.
As of Feb. 25, MicroStrategy and its subsidiaries held a total of 193,000 bitcoins, which was worth $13.38 billion as of 10 a.m. Tuesday, when the cryptocurrency hit the all-time peak. Bitcoin’s previous high was $69,225, which it hit on Nov. 10, 2021.
The company’s 193,000 bitcoins were purchased for approximately $6.09 billion in total, averaging $31,544 per bitcoin, including fees and expenses.
As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, bitcoin was selling for $64,045.35 per bitcoin on the nation’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase.
MicroStrategy shares were trading for $1,138.64 at 3:11 p.m. Tuesday, down from $1,244.19 at market open. During the past 52 weeks, its stock price has ranged from $188.30 to $1,359.91, according to Yahoo! Finance.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Feb. 26, MicroStrategy reported that, during the period from Feb. 15 to Feb. 25, it and its subsidiaries purchased approximately 3,000 bitcoins for about $155.4 million in cash, at an average price of about $51,813 per bitcoin, including fees and expenses.
One notable cause of the bitcoin surge is the SEC authorization in January allowing 11 applicants, including financial firms BlackRock and Fidelity, to offer exchange-traded funds tied to bitcoin. ETFs allow investors to buy shares in a group of assets rather than purchasing ownership of the assets directly. Bitcoin ETFs attracted more than $7 billion of net inflows in less than two months, according to Bloomberg.
Additionally, Bitcoin is set to become scarcer, which is also driving demand. A “halving,” which halves the amount of bitcoin that cryptocurrency miners receive, is set for later this year. (Transactions on bitcoin’s blockchain are verified by miners who earn bitcoins for the service.)
“Breaking all-time highs, with the current momentum in spot ETFs as well as the upcoming halving narrative, would likely awaken true FOMO — fear of missing out — among participants currently watching markets from the sidelines,” Stefan von Haenisch, head of trading at OSL SG Pte., told Bloomberg.
MicroStrategy has pursued bitcoin as an investment strategy since 2020, led by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, a charismatic billionaire cryptocurrency whale and social media influencer who stepped down as CEO after the company’s August 2022 earnings report, when the company disclosed that it had paid a total of $3.977 billion for its bitcoin, which at that time had fallen to a market value of about $2.451 billion. At that point, MicroStrategy also had taken on about $2.4 billion in loans and debt to acquire bitcoin. At points in 2022, the currency fell below $20,000 to prices it had not seen since 2020.
Saylor has been wont to make dramatic predictions about bitcoin prices to his millions of social media followers, once saying he thought the cryptocurrency could eventually fetch as much as $6 million per coin. When bitcoin’s value nosedived below $17,600 in June 2022, Saylor tweeted an edited photo of himself sporting a McDonald’s hat, serving fries and a hamburger. “Monday morning is time to get back to work. #Bitcoin,” he tweeted.
Saylor is no stranger to high-stakes gambles. He lost $6.1 billion in a single day in 2000 amid the dotcom bubble burst, making him the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question.
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.
Virginia Business Editor Richard Foster contributed to this story.
Virginians bet more than $652.87 million on sports in January, up 27.2% from January 2023, according to data released Friday by the Virginia Lottery.
January’s handle is a 3.11% increase from December 2023, when Virginians bet about $633 million on sports. Virginia bettors won more than $578.5 million in January and more than $569.57 million in December.
About $646 million of January’s gross sports gaming revenues came from mobile operators, with the remaining roughly $6.6 million coming from casino retail activity. Virginia currently has three casinos: the temporary Bristol Casino: The Future Home of Hard Rock, the permanent Rivers Casino Portsmouth and the temporary Caesars Virginia casino in Danville. In January, Virginia’s gaming revenues from casinos totaled $52.86 million, according to the Virginia Lottery.
The licensed operators included in January’s reporting were:
Betfair Interactive US (FanDuel) in partnership with the Washington Commanders
Virginia places a 15% tax on sports betting activity based on each permit holder’s adjusted gross revenue. With 10 operators reporting net positive AGR for January, the month’s taxes totaled about $9.9 million, of which 97.5% — about $9.68 million — will be deposited in the state’s general fund. The remaining roughly $248,300 will be deposited in the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund, which the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services administers.
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