According to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) statement by Canada’s National Bank, during the first quarter of 2023, the bank increased its shares in MicroStrategy by 8.8%.
The number of MicroStrategy shares held by the bank as of March 31 increased to 1,768, worth $516,822. Through its acquisitions, business intelligence company MicroStrategy has established a reputation for being a large Bitcoin holder.
Traditional companies have also joined in on the effort to obtain exposure to Bitcoin through MSTR stocks, including Bank of America, Fidelity, BlackRock, The Vanguard Group, and Capital Research.
Financial behemoths including Bank of America purchased 226,506 shares of MicroStrategy during the first quarter of 2023, while Fidelity and BlackRock purchased 96,800 and 10,800 MSTR shares, respectively.
With 905,164 (9.44%) of the company’s shares, The Vanguard Group is one of the top stockholders, while Capital Research purchased 154,100 shares. Group One Trading, a proprietary trading company, also revealed that it had exercised an option to purchase 1.3 million MicroStrategy shares.
As a result of Bitcoin’s price surging beyond $30,000, MicroStrategy’s holdings have became profitable for the first time in months. Nearly 140,000 BTC were purchased by MicroStrategy for around $4.17 billion, and on April 12, as a result of the rise in Bitcoin’s price, the value of these assets increased to over $4.21 billion.
Hal Press, the creator of a cryptocurrency hedge fund, has criticised and called unsustainable MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin acquisition technique.
According to Press, “every single one of Saylor’s coins will need to be sold.” Press said that the acquisition approach for bitcoin is laughably foolish. But despite the criticism, MicroStrategy and its inventor Michael Saylor continue to promote the digital asset.
MSTR is up more than 6% today and is presently trading at $344. It has had a positive 142% performance year to date. It is becoming more and more obvious that traditional companies are buying up MicroStrategy stock in order to indirectly obtain exposure to Bitcoin.
These businesses are acquiring exposure to the leading digital asset without really holding it by making investments in MicroStrategy. Although some may find MicroStrategy’s entry into the Bitcoin market unusual, the company has so far reaped the benefits handsomely.
