MicroStrategy make $1B BTC buy on top of Square, ETF investments

The big bitcoin downturn earlier this week didn’t spook buyers, with business analytics firm MicroStrategy announcing today that it has added another $1 billion in BTC to its hoard. 

That came just a day after Jack Dorsey’s Square payment services firm added another $120 million investment as Canada’s first physically settled Bitcoin ETF revealed it has attracted $564 million in its first week.

According to a Feb. 24 announcement, MicroStrategy bought 19,452 BTC for its reserves, worth more than $1 billion. With this addition, the company’s holdings reach a total of 90,531 BTC, or $4.46 billion as of press time. The firm’s CEO, Michael Saylor, pointed out that accumulating Bitcoin is now one of its core objectives:

“The Company remains focused on our two corporate strategies of growing our enterprise analytics software business and acquiring and holding Bitcoin. The company now holds over 90,000 Bitcoins, reaffirming our belief that Bitcoin, as the world’s most widely-adopted cryptocurrency, can serve as a dependable store of value.”

Saylor further explained that MicroStrategy will continue acquiring more Bitcoin with its excess liquidity and could also issue debt or equity securities to use the proceeds to acquire even more of it. The company already acquired $900 million of Bitcoin earlier this month by issuing convertible notes.

MicroStrategy president and CFO Phong Le added that the firm does not see its new corporate objective as entirely separate from its original software business, saying:

“We believe our Bitcoin strategy, including our Bitcoin holdings and related activities in support of the Bitcoin network, is complementary to our software business, by enhancing awareness of our brand and providing opportunities to secure new customers.”

MicroStrategy’s news came one day after Twitter-founder Jack Dorsey’s Square announced it had added 3,318 bitcoins for $170 million. On top of its Oct. 8 $50 million buy, Bitcoin now accounts for 5% of Square’s corporate treasury. 

Nor does it intend to stop there, Square said in its Feb. 23 release: 

“Square believes that cryptocurrency is an instrument of economic empowerment, providing a way for individuals to participate in a global monetary system and secure their own financial future. The investment is part of Square’s ongoing commitment to bitcoin, and the company plans to assess its aggregate investment in bitcoin relative to its other investments on an ongoing basis.”

Tuesday also saw another sign of institutional interest in the first cryptocurrency, with the Purpose Bitcoin exchange-traded fund—Canada’s first ETF—accumulating $564 million in investments in just its first week, according to cryptocurrency data firm Glassnode.