JUST over a month after announcing plans to raise US$21 billion through stock sales to help fund additional purchases of Bitcoin, MicroStrategy is already almost halfway to its goal.
The company sold 3.7 million shares over the past week and used the proceeds to buy another US$1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, the fourth consecutive weekly purchase announced by the crypto hedge fund proxy.
The Tysons Corner, Virginia-based firm has only approximately US$11.3 billion of stock issuance under its so-called at-the-market share programme left to reach its three-year goal, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company also aims to raise US$21 billion through fixed-income securities by 2027 and has been increasing those offerings as well.
Since the election of president-elect Donald Trump, who is expected to create a more favourable regulatory environment for crypto, MicroStrategy has leaned into its Bitcoin acquisition strategy, Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer said. MicroStrategy has already surpassed the amount it planned to raise from stock issuance in 2025.
“One of the questions that remains to be answered is whether this implies that the ultimate size of this initiative will exceed the US$42 billion that the company had targeted, or if it’s simply a matter that those issuances and purchases are being pulled forward,” Palmer said.
MicroStrategy acquired 15,400 tokens for an average price of approximately US$95,976 from Nov 25 to Dec 1, according to an US Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday (Dec 2). The firm has purchased over US$13.5 billion since Nov 11, and now holds around US$38 billion in Bitcoin.
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MicroStrategy co-founder and chairman Michael Saylor has captured the attention of Wall Street by turning the enterprise software maker into what he calls a “Bitcoin Treasury” company. The firm’s shares have surged more than 500 per cent this year, outperforming almost every other major stock. MicroStrategy has been funding the sales through the sale of convertible notes and at-the-market share offerings.
Other companies are seeking to emulate this strategy. Mara Holdings, a crypto mining company, announced on Monday that it had acquired US$618 million worth of Bitcoin over the past two months. The company also announced a US$700 million convertible senior note offering, with some of the net proceeds going towards buying more Bitcoin.
Crypto mining stocks have underperformed this year after the reward for mining Bitcoin was cut in half in April. This lead to miners such as Mara, holding onto Bitcoin and purchasing new tokens under this Bitcoin treasury strategy. Mara’s shares dropped as much as 44 per cent earlier this year, but are now up 8 per cent year-to-date.
While mining companies have previously held Bitcoin or raised capital for infrastructure, acquiring Bitcoin outright has been more recent and become more aggressive during the current bull cycle, Macquarie Capital analyst Paul Golding said.
“Those with a more overt hodl strategy have likely benefited from that strategy in so much as their balance sheet hold assets have driven outsized performance relative to those who have not had as much Bitcoin on the balance sheet,” he said.
Riot Platforms, another mining company, announced earlier this year that it planned to temporarily halt the sale of the Bitcoin it mined and increase its Bitcoin holdings. The company’s shares are down 20 per cent so far this year after falling as much as 59 per cent in September. BLOOMBERG
