MicroStrategy (MSTR) acquired approximately 5,445 bitcoin (BTC) for approximately $147.3 million in cash since August 1, an average price of $27,053 per bitcoin, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
As of Sept. 24, MicroStrategy and its affiliates held a total of 158,245 bitcoins, which were acquired at an aggregate purchase price of around $4.68 billion and an average purchase price of $29,582 per bitcoin. The amounts per bitcoin include expenses and fees.
The company’s co-founder and Executive Chairman, Michael Saylor, has been a major bitcoin advocate, turning the software provider into a BTC-buying juggernaut. The company has been newly emboldened by bitcoin’s 60% price increase this year just 13 months after Saylor resigned as CEO, with the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization languishing well below $20,000.
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Bitcoin was recently trading at $26,350, down more than 1% and within the range it has occupied for weeks. When Saylor handed over the CEO job to the company’s then president, Phong Le, MicroStrategy held just short of 130,000 bitcoin.
MicroStraetgy shares were relatively flat on Monday afternoon at $324.89.
In early September, MicroStrategy received an additional boost when the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which sets accounting standards for publicly traded companies in the U.S., voted to allow companies to use fair-value accounting to show immediate gains and losses on their income statements. Companies had to previously show increases in cryptocurrencies when they sold the assets but could indicate losses at least once a year.
Read more: MicroStrategy Increases Its Bitcoin Cache With 14,620 New Tokens
In a comment on the social media platform formerly known as X, Saylor applauded the change when it was announced, writing that it “eliminates a major impediment to corporate adoption of $BTC as a treasury asset.”
Separately, in August, MicroStrategy announced that it would issue and sell shares of its class A common stock for an aggregate offering price of up to $750 million. As of Sept. 24, the company had issued and sold 403,362 shares, resulting in net proceeds of $147.3 million.
Founded in 1989, Virginia-based MicroStrategy became known first as a provider of data intelligence software before pivoting hard into digital assets. MicroStrategy began buying bitcoin in 2020 to reduce the company’s cash assets under the threat of inflation.