MicroStrategy’s $4 billion bitcoin bet in the green as price hits $30,000

Thanks to the latest rally in the crypto market, MicroStrategy’s bitcoin holdings are in the green, on paper at least.

Bitcoin was trading at $30,103 by 4:40 a.m. EST, up 1.6% over the past 10 hours, according to Binance data via TradingView. The cryptocurrency is up 82% year-to-date and recently registered its best quarterly increase in two years. The rise in bitcoin has been linked to the prospect of interest rate increases peaking amid banking stress in the U.S. and across Europe.

The surge in prices has pushed the price of bitcoin above MicroStrategy’s average purchase price of $29,803. While that means the company is technically up, it’s only by a few hundreds dollars, which is a small buffer. Since the company owns so much bitcoin, if it was sold in a short period of time, it would likely push the price down significantly in the process. This means the company likely wouldn’t be able to sell all of its bitcoin for a profit yet if it wanted to.

MicroStrategy’s bitcoin holdings have been in the red since last June. At the time, the collapse of crypto lender Celsius and the failure of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital propelled the markets down even further. During this time, the U.S. Federal Reserve also increased interest rates to combat rising inflation. 

Recent bitcoin purchases lowered MicroStrategy’s average purchase price. MicroStrategy added 1,045 bitcoin on April 5, following up on a March 27 announcement that stated it had bought 6,455 bitcoin. 

MicroStrategy and its subsidiaries now hold approximately 140,000 bitcoins, at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $4.17 billion, according to The Block Research data. 

Shares in the firm are up 114% year-to-date, outperforming bitcoin, and are trading at $312.78. 

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