Bitcoin buying is back. Corporate crypto heavyweight Strategy announced Monday that it bought over $21 million worth of Bitcoin last week, bringing its total holdings to roughly $70 billion. The company, led by the flamboyant billionaire Michael Saylor, funded the purchase by selling more than 125,000 shares of its common stock and using $500,000 in cash. It also spent roughly $192 million to repurchase nearly 2 million shares of STRC, a type of preferred stock that makes regular payments to investors.
The latest purchase extends Strategy’s return to Bitcoin buying, marking its fifth purchase since August.
Bitcoin broke out of a prolonged trading lull in mid-August, climbing to around $77,000 for the first time since May. It has largely held above that level since and was trading at $82,600 Monday morning. The rebound followed a steep downturn that pushed Bitcoin from a high of $126,000 last October to a low of $58,000 in June. Amid the slump, Strategy—which holds roughly 4% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply—sold portions of its stockpile on four occasions. As Bitcoin’s price rebounded, Strategy stopped selling and returned to stockpiling.
Strategy isn’t the only big player wading back into Bitcoin. Other companies have recently added crypto to their balance sheets, breathing life back into corporate crypto buying.
Earlier this month, Strive, the asset manager cofounded by billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, announced a $169 million purchase of 2,000 Bitcoin, bringing its stockpile to roughly $2.4 billion. Robinhood, the crypto trading platform led by CEO Vlad Tenev, also joined the ranks of corporate Bitcoin buyers and recently disclosed a $25 million investment for its own balance sheet. Metaplanet, the Japanese investment firm and world’s second-largest publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company, announced this month that it sold 10,000 Bitcoin and bought 11,000 in the third quarter to demonstrate to credit markets that it could convert its holdings into cash when needed.
But companies aren’t just stockpiling Bitcoin. Bitmine, a Bitcoin miner turned into an Ethereum treasury company, announced this month that it had added roughly $41 million worth of the cryptocurrency to its treasury. The purchase brought its holdings to about 6 million tokens—nearly 5% of Ether’s total supply.
The renewed buying comes as Bitcoin’s recovery fuels hopes of further gains. The cryptocurrency has held up despite recent interest rate hikes in the United States and renewed tensions in the Middle East.
Fortune previously reported that analysts expect Bitcoin to recover further by year-end, with one strategist predicting a summer bottom followed by a rebound toward $100,000.
The post Strategy buys $21 million worth of Bitcoin as corporate crypto buying shows signs of revival appeared first on Fortune.
