Strategy Snaps Up More Bitcoin Amid BTC Price Drop

In brief

Strategy last week spent $45.6 million on 397 Bitcoins, one of its smaller buys.
It now holds 641,205 digital coins worth $69.1 billion.
The Bitcoin treasury’s stock was down slightly on the news.

Bitcoin treasury Strategy added 397 digital coins for around $45.6 million—an average price of $114,771 per coin—in one of its smaller buys in recent months amid rocky price action last week and mixed reaction to its latest quarterly earnings.

The Nasdaq-traded firm—formerly MicroStrategy—now holds 641,205 BTC worth $69.1 billion at Bitcoin’s current price of $107,774.

Last week’s buy was slightly bigger than its prior Bitcoin purchase of $43 million. The week before that, the company spent just $19 million on the asset.

Strategy stock (MSTR) was trading 3.6% lower Monday morning New York time at about $266 per share. Over the past month, MSTR has dropped by 24%.

The software firm’s earnings last week showed that it generated $2.8 billion in profits for its third quarter as it continued aggressively buying the biggest cryptocurrency by market cap. But analysts have highlighted its declining multiple to Net Asset Value (mNAV), the premium at which a firm’s shares trade relative to its crypto holdings. The measure is seen as reflecting treasury companies’ ability to deliver on their strategies.

Strategy—formerly MicroStrategy—started buying Bitcoin in August 2020 as a way to generate better returns for its shareholders as inflation rocked the U.S. and world economies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It has since spent around $47.4 billion on Bitcoin and is the largest corporate holder of the asset, focusing mostly on securitizing the cryptocurrency. Investors can buy its shares to gain exposure to the leading cryptocurrency without having to buy and hold digital coins.

Since its first buy, Strategy stock has risen over 1,700%.

Other companies have followed Strategy’s approach, buying Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital coins to boost their stock prices.

But some experts have warned of the strategy’s inherent risk, and that it might not be appropriate for every company.

In a Myriad prediction market, 96% of respondents do not believe that Strategy will sell more Bitcoin this year. Myriad is a unit of Dastan, Decrypt’s parent company.