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MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin Portfolio Soars Past $5 Billion As BTC Holds Firm At $34,000

In a remarkable turn of events for the business intelligence (BI) company MicroStrategy, the recent bullish momentum of Bitcoin (BTC) has resulted in significant profits and a resurgence for the company. 

MicroStrategy has returned on a profitable trajectory after a prolonged period of market downturn and losses suffered by companies with cryptocurrency holdings.

MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin Holdings Surge 

Just a month ago, MicroStrategy and its subsidiaries made a strategic move by increasing their BTC holdings. According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company, co-founded by renowned investor Michael Saylor, added 5,455 BTC to their portfolio, valued at $147 million.

As of the time of writing, MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings stand at a staggering 158,245 BTC, with a total valuation of approximately $4.68 billion. 

Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin has experienced a remarkable upswing, breaking through a long consolidation phase above $27,000 and reaching a new 2023 high. With a significant surge of 12.2%, BTC peaked at $35,300. This surge has unlocked substantial unrealized profits for MicroStrategy.

According to Lookonchain, MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings have generated an estimated unrealized profit of around $746 million. 

With BTC’s skyrocketing price, MicroStrategy’s strategic accumulation of 28,560 BTC since May 2022, at an average price of $25,707, has proven profitable. 

Bitcoin

MicroStrategy’s success in capitalizing on the recent price surge of Bitcoin highlights the company’s strategic approach and belief in the long-term value of the cryptocurrency. 

By significantly increasing their Bitcoin holdings, MicroStrategy has positioned itself to benefit from BTC’s continued growth and adoption.

BTC Bears Crushed As $300 Million In Shorts Liquidated

The cryptocurrency market witnessed a stunning surge, resulting in a staggering $100 billion addition to its total market capitalization within a single day. This rapid ascent also triggered a wave of liquidations amounting to over $400 million, with shorts accounting for a significant portion of the losses. 

With BTC experiencing a 12% price increase, this led to the liquidation of more than $180 million in short positions out of a total of $222 million in BTC liquidations. 

Ethereum (ETH) traders also saw a significant loss of $60 million, with $44 million coming from those anticipating a price drop, according to data from CoinGlass.

Most of these liquidations, totaling $317 million, occurred within the last 12 hours, with short sellers accounting for a substantial 76% ($241 million) of the total losses. 

Concurrently, trading volumes for the top three cryptocurrencies on the derivatives market witnessed significant growth. 

Bitcoin’s volume experienced a remarkable 221% surge, while Ethereum and XRP saw a 108% increase in trading activity. As a result, approximately 95,000 traders faced liquidation during this period of intense market volatility.

Scott Melker, an investor and host of a cryptocurrency podcast, commented on the situation, stating:

Bitcoin bears have been left reeling as the market witnessed an extraordinary rally, resulting in massive liquidations of short positions. This surge has caught many traders off guard, leading to substantial losses in a short period.

Bitcoin

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

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Tesla Report Shows Bitcoin Holdings Remain Unchanged At $1.2 Billion

Elon Musk, and by extension, Tesla, have been one of the biggest proponents of bitcoin. The automotive manufacturer which is headed by the billionaire had been a big push in the first bitcoin run-up towards a new all-time high in May 2021. This had come as a result of the EV manufacturer announcing that it would be accepting BTC as a payment method for its cars.

Not too long after, the company had repealed its decision to accept the digital asset as a method of payment, citing environmental concerns as the reason behind this. However, it did not explicitly back away from bitcoin as it made investments into the asset. In a recently released financial report from the company, Tesla reveals that it continues to hold on to it BTC that it had purchased last year.

Tesla Did Not Increase Bitcoin Holdings

Elon Musk had revealed last year during ‘The B Word’ conference that Tesla, the company which he runs as CEO, held bitcoin on its balance sheet. While most were not surprised, it was still a news-worthy revelation and was the subject of countless headlines. Musk had also revealed that the company had no intentions of selling the BTC and would hold onto it.

Related Reading | Has Bitcoin Reached Its Bottom? Analyst Says It Still Has A Long Way To Go

Since then though, it seems the company has stuck to its decision to not sell but it had not increased its holdings in the digital asset either. Financial reports from the company showed that Tesla did not purchase any new bitcoin in the last quarter of 2021.

BTC trending higher post-crash | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

It also did not record any impairments in the same time period as it did in the third quarter of the year where it was to report impairment of $51 million on its bitcoin holdings. The value of the investment had remained flat given that the value of BTC did not fluctuate much during this time. Its holdings sat at a value of $1.2 billion for the quarter, marking profits on the investments it had made earlier in the year.

Not Ruling Out Crypto Payments

When Tesla had announced it was stopping bitcoin payments, it had come with a clause that would see the company resume BTC payments. Musk, in a tweet, had explained that once bitcoin mining reached 50% renewable energy, then it would resume the payments.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Leverage: Lack Of Liquidations Could Indicate Another Wave Of Selling

This is still yet to happen though but Tesla has not ruled out cryptocurrency payments entirely. The company officially started accepting meme coin Dogecoin, a favorite of CEO Elon Musk, as payment for Tesla merchandise. It explained that it will use this as a test run to see how Dogecoin payments would work on its platform. All items listed for Dogecoin payments were quickly sold out following the announcement.

Tesla remains the second publicly traded company with the largest bitcoin holdings, coming behind MicroStrategy and its enormous stash of more than 120K BTC.

Featured image from TechBooky, chart from TradingView.com

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By The Numbers: Here’s How Much Bitcoin Michael Saylor Holds

Michael Saylor is one of the most vocal supporters of bitcoin and is CEO of MicroStrategy, the company with the largest bitcoin holdings in the world. The CEO has always been a big proponent of the digital asset, taking both a personal and professional stake in the asset.

Saylor had revealed in 2020 that he holds over 17,000 BTC. At this time, bitcoin was still trading below $30,000 and Saylor had said that he got all of his holdings for an average of $9,882. Bitcoin has since grown over 100% since the CEO made his big reveal, pushing the value of Saylor’s holdings to almost $1 billion.

Related Reading | December Turns Red For Bitcoin As Market-Wide Sell-Offs Continue

How Much Is Saylor’s BTC Worth?

Michael Saylor told The Information that he does not believe that anyone should sell any of their bitcoin and that he has actually never sold any of his bitcoin. In his 2020 reveal, he said that he held a total of $17,732 BTC, all of which he had purchased before his company MicroStrategy, had purchased its first bitcoin. At an average trading price of $13,900, Saylor’s holdings were worth a little over $246 million.

“Some have asked how much #BTC I own. I personally #hodl 17,732 BTC which I bought at $9,882 each on average. I informed MicroStrategy of these holdings before the company decided to buy #bitcoin for itself.”

Bitcoin is now trading significantly higher than it was when Saylor had made his big reveal, growing as high as $69k at his peak. Presently, the price of BTC is revolving around $48,000. At this present value, the CEO’s bitcoin holdings are now worth over $850 million.

BTC begins recovery trend | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

He intends to continue holding these coins as he believes that bitcoin is headed for $6 million apiece. This means that the CEO still expects the cryptocurrency to grow another 12,000% from its current value.

How Much Bitcoin Does MicroStrategy Own?

MicroStrategy boasts the largest bitcoin holdings of any public company. The company had begun accumulating bitcoin in 2019 and has since garnered 122,478 as of its last purchase, bringing the total value of its holdings to over $6.1 billion. All of its BTC were purchased at an average price of $29,861, putting the company firmly in profit at the current value of the asset.

Related Reading | Crypto Research Analyst Puts Ethereum At $9,000 In Six Months

However, its CEO had begun purchasing bitcoin before the company. Saylor revealed that he had all of his BTC before MicroStrategy had bought its first bitcoin, adding that his personal holdings were shown to convince the company to begin investing in the digital asset.

The company, like its CEO, has no plans to sell is BTC. Instead, it has begun looking towards new ways to generate yield from the investment, which Saylor revealed at an investor day presentation held last week.

Featured image from Business Insider, chart from TradingView.com

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74% Of Bitcoin Holders Remain In Profit At Current Prices

Bitcoin price has dropped quite a bit from its $69,000 all-time high but it continues to maintain high values. Investors who have been in the market for a while are deep in profit, while a small minority are the only ones in loss. Nevertheless, it goes to show how much the digital asset has grown in value given that the large majority of investors could sell now and still make a profit.

74% Of Bitcoin Holders Remain In Profit

Data from IntoTheBlock shows that a total of 74% of all bitcoin holders continue to remain in profit. These investors would make a profit and some already have been realizing this profit with the sell-offs that have been taking place in the market. So despite declining prices for the past month, the majority of bitcoin investors are realizing gains from their investments.

Related Reading | Despite Crackdown, Bitcoin Mining Is Still Alive And Well In China

On the flip side of this, a total of 18% of investors are in loss from their investments. Going with current prices, these investors would have purchased their bitcoins at about $52,000 and higher, putting them right in loss territory. The rest of the investors, 7% in total, remain in neutral territory. These are the investors who bought their bitcoins on or around the current trending price of the digital asset.

74% of BTC investors are in profit | Source: IntoTheBlock

Of all of thee investors, 56% have held their bitcoins for longer than a year, putting the majority of those who have held their bitcoins for longer right in profit territory. A total of 33% have held their assets for a duration of 1 to 12 months, while 11% have held their coins for less than a year.

It’s safe to say that most of those in loss are those in this last category as they would have bought their bitcoins at the height of the bull rally that sent the digital asset to new all-time highs.

Exchange Outflows Signaling Supply Squeeze

Even as the majority of bitcoin holders are in profit, exchange inflows continue to underperform outflows. On a seven-day moving average scale, total outflows from exchanges have been higher than inflows by almost $1 billion.

Related Reading | December Turns Red For Bitcoin As Market-Wide Sell-Offs Continue

The total bitcoin exchange inflows for the last seven days came out to $7.54 billion, while outflows for the same time period were higher at $8.27 billion. This signals an impending supply squeeze as the coins moving out of exchanges are higher than those coming in.

Additionally, this points to bullish sentiment among investors. With more coins moving out of exchanges, investors are most likely consolidating their holdings and moving them to safer self-storage options to hold out for the long-term.

BTC breaks above $50,000 | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Featured image from Bitcoin Profit, charts from IntoTheBlock and TradingView.com

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Michael Saylor Clarifies His Company’s Bitcoin Strategy On US’s National TV

The dedication MicroStrategy’s CEO puts into Bitcoin raises questions even in the crypto sphere. Imagine how people in the traditional financial world feel. Michael Saylor joined CNBC’s “Fast Money” talk show to discuss his controversial game plan. The hosts asked though questions and the CEO answered them with ease.

What follows is a play-by-play narration of the game.

 

Of course, Saylor started by defining the intangible asset, “The world is waking up to the fact that Bitcoin is digital property on an open monetary network. And that’s pretty profound because it’s going to spread to billions of people around the planet. It’s digital gold on a big tech network.”

Related Reading | Saylor Reacts To Taunts That Bitcoin Has Become The MySpace of Crypto

Some people wonder if MicroStrategy abandoned its software business. If the company is now it’s some kind of Bitcoin ETF. According to the CEO, they have two strategies and one of those is to buy Bitcoin. “MicroStrategy is the first company to do a dutch auction or share repurchase to buy Bitcoin. We’re the first company to do a convertible debt offering to buy Bitcoin. Last week, we became the first company to do a senior secured debt offering to buy Bitcoin.” 

NewsBTC already covered their latest play, and Saylor clarified that they will use the new funds, “either to buy Bitcoin, or to retire debt, or for general corporate purposes.” MicroStrategy wants to have all of its options open.

What Do MicroStrategy’s Shareholders Think?

When asked about his investor’s opinions on his obsession with Bitcoin, Saylor once again clarified the situation. Before this new chapter, MicroStrategy’s stock was trading at about $120 a share. They were a profitable company, but cash was a liability on their balance sheet. They shapeshifted, rotated their shareholders base, “and transformed ourselves into a company that’s able to sell enterprise software and to aquire and hold Bitcoin.” 

As for the results of this move, he estimates that the power of their brand increased by a factor of 100. The last quarter was the best that the software side of the company’s had in the last 10 years. The core business is up 10%. Employees and shareholders are happy.

What Does Michael Saylor Think About Inflation?

“Over the past 12 months we’ve all been waiting for inflation” According to Saylor, investors say that Bitcoin is up 330% and gold is up 7% in that period. Bitcoin is outperforming gold by a factor of 50. Early Bitcoin believes like Paul Tudor Jones are doubling or tripling their allocation, “I’m surprised they’re not increasing their allocation by a factor of ten, because Bitcoin is fifty times better.”

Is Michael Saylor a Bitcoin Maximalist?

When asked about Bitcoin Maximalism and diversification, Saylor gave them a masterclass in crypto assets:

“Bitcoin is the highest and most dominant digital property network. Think of it like giant blocks in cyber-Manhattan. Then you have digital currency, that’s like Tether, and stablecoins, they want to be money markets in cyberspace. They’ll be like the CBDC Dollars. Then you have digital applications, like Ethereum. Ethereum wants to dematerialize the JP Morgan buildings, and the banking stablishments, and all of the exchanges. There’s a place for all of these things if properly understood.”

Even though there’s a place for every asset, “Bitcoin is made to last forever. High integrity. Very durable.” And that’s a quality you want if you’re building over it.

Microstrategy price chart for 06/16/2021 - TradingView

MicroStrategy price chart on Cboe BZX | Source: MSTR on TradingView.com

Why Buy A Share Of MicroStrategy And Not Just Buy Bitcoin?

Did anyone notice that MicroStrategy’s stock is now following Bitcoin’s rhythm on the charts? According to Saylor, his company offers two advantages. One, Microstrategy has the ability to sweep its software cash flow into Bitcoin. Two, they have the ability to raise debt financing. They can borrow a billion Dollars with zero percent interest. Your ETF will not be able to do that. 

Related Reading | Can Bears Force Michael Saylor To Sell His Bitcoin? Analyst Shared Bullish Theory

So yeah, he compared his stock to an ETF because they’re roughly in the same category. Some investors and funds just can’t buy Bitcoin. They’re able to buy MSTR and the highly anticipated Bitcoin ETF, though. 

Featured Image Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash - Charts By TradingView