MicroStrategy Posts Another Loss After Bitcoin Charge

MicroStrategy Inc., the enterprise-software maker better known as the largest public holder of Bitcoin, registered an eighth consecutive quarterly loss after writing down the value of its cryptocurrency holdings.

(Bloomberg) — MicroStrategy Inc., the enterprise-software maker better known as the largest public holder of Bitcoin, registered an eighth consecutive quarterly loss after writing down the value of its cryptocurrency holdings.

The Tysons Corner, Virginia-based firm controlled by Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor had a net loss of $249.7 million, or $21.93 a share, in the fourth quarter. Revenue fell 1.5% to $132.6 million, a lower than forecast drop. The company took a impairment charge, net of gains on sales, of $197.6 million in the three months that ended in December.

Last year, Saylor relinquished the chief executive role of the company he co-founded to focus on advancing his strategy of holding Bitcoin on the company balance sheet instead of conventional assets such as cash or short-term securities. Bitcoin tumbled 64% in 2021, helping to send the company’s shares down 74%.

MicroStrategy ended the year with $43.8 million in cash, the lowest amount in at least 40 quarters, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Before Saylor started to buy Bitcoin in 2020, the company had $531 million in cash. The company generated $3.2 million in cash from operations in 2022, down from $94 million the prior year.

MicroStrategy’s shares have more than doubled since the start of this year to around $290 as Bitcoin posted a rally of almost 45%. The shares were little changed in after-hours trading.

By the end of December, MicroStrategy had accumulated a cache of about 132,500 Bitcoins, worth about $2.2 billion, according to Bloomberg data. The value of its Bitcoin holdings is up about $850 million since the end of last year.

In a filing in December, MicroStrategy said it acquired about 2,395 Bitcoin between the start of November and Dec. 1, when the market nosedived on the news of crypto exchange FTX’s collapse, paying roughly $42.8 million in cash. It then sold 704 of the tokens on Dec. 22 for around $11.8 million, citing tax purposes, before buying 810 more of them two days later.

–With assistance from Tom Contiliano.

(Updates with information on cash flow in the fourth paragraph.)

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com