MicroStrategy, the largest publicly traded holder of Bitcoin (BTC), says it acquired an additional 850 BTC in January bringing its total holdings to 190,000 BTC — worth $8.1 billion.
In its Q4 2023 Feb. 6 earnings call, the business software firm’s chief financial officer, Andrew Kang, said it acquired 56,650 BTC throughout 2023 at an average price of $33,580.
Overall, MicroStrategy posted a net income of $89.1 million, compared with a loss of $249.7 million in the year prior. The company’s revenue decreased 6.1% to $124.5 million within the same time frame, according to a Feb. 6 earnings statement.
MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor said its 2023 performance could be attributed to investors recognizing the broader theme of a “digital transformation” of assets.
“2024 is the year of the birth of Bitcoin as an institutional-grade asset class, in fact, it’s the first new asset class of the modern era.”
“The next 15 years will be a regulated, institutional, high growth period for Bitcoin, very different from the last 15 years,” Saylor added.
In December 2020, MicroStrategy became the first publicly traded company to purchase Bitcoin for capital allocation. Since then, the company’s share price has grown a little more than 300% while tech stocks such as Microsoft and Google have grown around 95% within the same timeframe.
Saylor added the arrival of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds had been a “catalytic moment,” taking Bitcoin from a medium of exchange to a store of value, something he said weakens past criticisms of the asset for failing to function as a currency.
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“We don’t need to address any of the currency criticisms anymore. Simply as a store of value, there’s no reason Bitcoin can’t continue to outperform and 100X from where it is right now,” Saylor said.
While crypto market pundits have shared concerns that Bitcoin exchange-traded product providers such as BlackRock and Fidelity would gnaw into MicroStrategy’s market share, Saylor seemed unconcerned by any encroachment by traditional finance firms.
He said MicroStrategy would continue to “create software” and work alongside Bitcoin developers working on BTC-based layer-2 networks, along with other ecosystem participants to increase the firm’s revenue in the coming years.
Saylor closed out the earnings call by saying that MicroStrategy would continue to purchase more Bitcoin.
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