MicroStrategy news: 190,000 Bitcoins reached

Last news: yesterday, the founder and president of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor, announced that the company has purchased an additional 850 Bitcoin. 

Thanks to this purchase, it reaches the record amount of 190,000 BTC owned, making it the single company in the world with the most Bitcoin. 

Bitcoin news: MicroStrategy’s purchases in January

During the month of January, MicroStrategy purchased a total of 850 BTC, spending $37.2 million, which is an average price of $43,700. This is a price higher than the current one, but in line with the average price of January.

In the previous quarter, the last of 2023, it had purchased a total of 31,755 BTC, spending 1.25 billion dollars, which is an average price of 39,411 per BTC. It should be remembered that in October 2023, the first month of the fourth quarter, the initial price of Bitcoin was about $27,000, although during the month of November it rose from $30,000 to $40,000.

However, it is immediately noticeable that the pace of purchases in January 2024 was much more restrained compared to that of the fourth quarter of 2023. 

It is possible that the company has decided to drastically reduce purchases after the price rose above $40,000, and since it continues to remain above that threshold, it is possible to imagine that the pace of its purchases will also remain low in February. 

To be honest, in October he had bought even fewer, but in November he had bought over 16,000 and in December over 14,000. 

The pace of MicroStrategy’s BTC purchases over the months is not constant, although it almost always buys some, so much so that for example in August 2023 it seems that it did not buy any, while in July it had bought 476 and in September it bought over 5,000. 

The MicroStrategy record 

MicroStrategy’s record is sensational: if we consider all the privately held companies listed on the stock exchange that own Bitcoin, after MicroStrategy’s 190,000 BTC, in a distant second place is Marathon Digital Holdings, which deals with crypto mining, with “only” 15,700 BTC. In other words, MicroStrategy owns more than 10 times the BTC owned by the second-ranked company. 

At the third place there is Tesla with 9,700 BTC. 

However, MicroStrategy is not the absolute largest holder of Bitcoin in the world. 

The single largest holder of BTC remains Satoshi Nakamoto, who is estimated to have over 1.1 million BTC, but since they have never been used and have not been moved since 2011, it is presumed that they may have disappeared.

The second largest holder of Bitcoin in the world is no longer the Grayscale ETF (GBTC), which has fallen to over 472,000 BTC (almost two and a half times the amount of MicroStrategy), but Binance, which holds over 560,000 BTC of its own clients.

Following are Coinbase (405,000 BTC) and Bitfinex (402,000). 

However, these, although being companies or funds, do not own their own Bitcoin, but rather hold BTC on behalf of their clients. MicroStrategy, on the other hand, owns its own BTC. 

Other major Bitcoin holders

Note that even the US government seems to hold more Bitcoin than MicroStrategy, as it is said to still have 215,000 BTC resulting from seizures that have taken place over the years. However, a portion of these should be liquidated soon. 

Interestingly, the Chinese government seems to hold a number of BTC equal to that of MicroStrategy. 

There are three other major Bitcoin holders. 

One is a privately held, non-listed company, Block.one, which holds 164,000 (thus less than MicroStrategy), one is the failed Japanese exchange in 2014, Mt.Gox, with over 140,000, and the third is the WBTC (Wrapped BTC) smart contract with over 157,000. 

So excluding Satoshi Nakamoto, who is probably dead, MicroStrategy is by far the largest private holder of Bitcoin in the world, as the four active private entities that hold the most (Binance, Grayscale, Coinbase, and Bitfinex) actually do not hold their own BTC, and the other is a public entity (the US government).