Despite having a paper loss on its Bitcoin holdings of over $1 billion in 2022, the well-known business intelligence firm MicroStrategy insists it has no intentions to cease trading the virtual currency.
On February 2, MicroStrategy announced its 2022 Q4 and year-end profits, which revealed that the total impairment charges on its BTC holdings were around $1.3 billion for the year 2022.
MicroStrategy’s chief financial officer, Andrew Kang, stated:
“We may consider pursuing additional transactions that may take advantage of the volatility in Bitcoin prices, or other market dislocations that are consistent with our long-term Bitcoin strategy.”
As of December 31, 2022, Kang claimed that MicroStrategy controlled a total of 132,500 BTC, valued at $1.84 billion. 14 890 BTC of those were held directly by the company, and the rest were held through its subsidiary, MacroStrategy LLC.
The company had recently added a sizable quantity of Bitcoin to its portfolio. According to reports, MicroStrategy’s total sales for the fourth quarter exceeded Wall Street projections and came in at $132.6 billion. However, it lost $21.93 per share in the fourth quarter.
Michael Saylor, the co-founder and executive president of MicroStrategy, stated on the call that the company evaluates its stock performance against “a number of different benchmarks,” with Bitcoin’s success serving as the “most important.”
MicroStrategy outperforms Bitcoin as an Index
Saylor said that MicroStrategy had “been able to outperform Bitcoin as an index” over the course of the period when the company initially disclosed that it was purchasing Bitcoin in August 2020.
He noted that although Bitcoin has increased by 98% since August 2020, the company’s stock has increased by 117%.
He added that “the only real safe haven for an institutional investor is Bitcoin,” while adding that “Bitcoin is the only universally acknowledged digital commodity, and so if you’re an investor, Bitcoin is your safe haven in this regard.”
Notably, after making a statement in support of the now-bankrupt FTX’s former CEO in November, he faced harsh criticism from the greater crypto community.
