Michael Saylor’s Massive Bitcoin Bet Crosses $1B in Unrealized Profit

The surging price of bitcoin (BTC) has pushed the asset’s largest public holder, business software company MicroStrategy (MSTR), to unrealized gains of over $1.1 billion, 25% more than their cumulative investment.

Bitcoin holdings at the company founded by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, who often tweets his support for the largest cryptocurrency, reached $5.7 billion late on Thursday as the price crossed $37,000 for the first time since May 2022.

The company holds over 158,000 bitcoins, a position it acquired over a three-year period by investing company funds and proceeds from bond sales. The value of the holdings is now equal to over 80% of MicroStrategy’s $7.1 billion stock market capitalization.

The cost for these holdings is a cumulative $4.6 billion, data from Bitcoin Treasuries show. That’s more than 10 times larger than the next biggest institutional holder, bitcoin miner Marathon Digital, which has 13,000 bitcoins worth $500 million at current prices.

MicroStrategy’s most recent publicly known purchases came in the weeks ahead of Sept. 24, when it added 5,445 bitcoins for just under $150 million, or an average price of $27,053 each.

Bitcoin has surged recently amid optimism U.S. regulators will approve exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that hold BTC, a move some experts believe will prompt a flood of investment into the foremost cryptocurrency.

Those expectations increased Wednesday following a CoinDesk report that the Securities and Exchange Commission has opened talks with Grayscale Investments on the details of the company’s application to convert its bitcoin trust, known as GBTC, into a bitcoin ETF. Grayscale is owned by CoinDesk’s parent, DCG.