Saylor’s business software company, MicroStrategy, held more than 158,000 bitcoins as of Friday.
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.