MicroStrategy's Big Bet On Bitcoin Went Stratospheric

MicroStrategy has transformed into a 'bitcoin treasury company,' investing billions in bitcoin through debt and equity issuance, driving its stock price up nearly 400% in 2024 despite declining software revenues and heightened financial risks. The Guardian reports: In the summer of 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic upended economies around the world, an obscure U.S. software firm decided to diversify. MicroStrategy, whose head office is situated next to a shopping mall and metro station in Tysons Corner, Virginia, had decided the steady business of 'software as a service' was not racy enough. Instead, it would branch out by investing up to $250 million in alternative assets -- 'stocks, bonds, commodities such as gold, digital assets such as bitcoin or other asset types.' Less than five years later, that bitcoin side hustle has gone stratospheric. MicroStrategy's share price has swollen twentyfold, lifting its market capitalization to almost $75 billion and catapulting the stock into the Nasdaq 100 index of top technology shares.

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