MicroStrategy Stock Rises After Bitcoin Purchase. Saylor Doubles Down on Treasury Approach.

MicroStrategy Chairman Michael Saylor said Bitcoin was a ”trading asset” over the short term and a ”treasury asset” over the long term. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

MicroStrategy stock turned higher on Monday as markets recovered from Friday’s dip and the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin snapped up more “digital gold.”

The company, which does business as Strategy, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had purchased 21,021 Bitcoins for $2.46 billion, or roughly $117,256 each, in the period from July 28 to August 3.

The latest purchase was one of Strategy’s largest since the company began buying crypto at the end of 2020. For context, Strategy made its biggest purchase on record in November 2024, buying 55,500 Bitcoins for around $5.4 billion, or $97,862 a token.

As of Sunday, the company held 628,791 Bitcoins purchased for around $46.08 billion. Strategy’s holdings are valued at more than $72.5 billion, based on current market prices.

Chairman and co-founder Michael Saylor teased the upcoming purchase in series of posts to X over the weekend. He also provided a rare insight into the company’s methodology on Friday, writing, “In the short term, Bitcoin is a trading asset. Over the long term, it’s a treasury asset.”

Saylor appeared to be echoing the sentiment of an earlier post to the social-media platform in which he urged crypto fans to “hold on for dear life,” or weather market volatility and retain their digital assets for the long term.

News of Strategy’s latest purchase helped boost shares 4.8% to $384.39 on Monday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite gained 1.3% and 1.8%, respectively.

The price of Bitcoin was also on the rise, gaining 0.9% over the past 24 hours to $115,310, according to CoinDesk data.

Strategy was clawing back the heavy losses it suffered Friday after announcing changes to its framework for issuing equity. Shares ended the session down 8.77% at $366.63.

Moving forwad, the company said it will only issue common shares to buy Bitcoin if its enterprise value divided by the value of its Bitcoin holdings is above 2.5 times. The ratio currently hovers around 1.7, according to its website.

These changes mean Strategy will likely rely on preferred stock sales for now to fund Bitcoin purchases. Saylor doubled down on the new parameters on a call with investors Friday, saying the company would, “on a go-forward basis, be more disciplined about how we issue our MicroStrategy ATM,” or at-the-market equity offerings.

Write to Elsa Ohlen at elsa.ohlen@barrons.com and Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com