MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin Holdings Reached 140,000 BTC

MicroStrategy disclosed on April 5, 2023 that it and its subsidiaries had acquired approximately 1,045 bitcoin for about $29.3 million in cash. The purchases occurred between March 24 and April 4 at an average cost of approximately $28,016 per bitcoin, including fees and expenses.

The acquisition brought the company’s reported position to approximately 140,000 BTC as of April 4. MicroStrategy said the aggregate position had cost approximately $4.17 billion, or an average of about $29,803 per bitcoin including fees and expenses.

The filing mattered because it demonstrated that a publicly traded company remained willing to concentrate substantial treasury resources in bitcoin after the failures and retrenchment that had unsettled the digital-asset industry in late 2022 and early 2023. It also arrived shortly after MicroStrategy restructured part of the financing and collateral surrounding its bitcoin position.

A milestone with a defined purchase window

The April 5 Form 8-K established the announcement date, purchase window, quantity, cash expenditure and average acquisition cost. Bloomberg independently reported the disclosure on April 5 and described the position’s aggregate purchase cost as approximately $4.17 billion.

Coinburn calculates that the latest 1,045 BTC represented about 0.75% of the resulting 140,000-BTC position. The disclosed average price for the new tranche was approximately 6.0% below the company’s reported cumulative average of $29,803. Those percentages are calculations from rounded company figures, not separately reported measurements.

The difference did not establish a gain or loss on April 5. An average acquisition cost is not a contemporaneous market quotation, and MicroStrategy did not report a sale, realized return or independently appraised value in the filing.

The balance-sheet context

MicroStrategy’s 2022 annual report, filed on February 16, 2023, said that the company held approximately 132,500 BTC as of February 15. It described bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset and said it intended to acquire more, while also warning that the strategy exposed the company to price volatility, concentration, custody, liquidity and counterparty risks.

A separate March 27 filing documented much of the movement between that earlier balance and the April milestone. MicroStrategy said it had acquired approximately 6,455 BTC for $150 million between February 16 and March 23, taking its holdings to approximately 138,955 BTC.

The same March filing said subsidiary MacroStrategy had paid Silvergate approximately $161 million on March 24 to satisfy a $205 million term loan. Silvergate consequently released its security interest in the collateral, including approximately 34,619 BTC held in the loan’s collateral account as of March 24. MicroStrategy said the payoff was funded through previously disclosed share-sale proceeds and a $5 million reserve account.

That chronology is important: repayment released bitcoin from the Silvergate security interest, but the April 5 filing did not say that the released coins were newly acquired or sold. It also did not identify the specific source of the $29.3 million used for the latest purchases, so connecting that cash directly to the earlier share sales would be an inference rather than a verified fact.

What the disclosure established—and what it did not

The event showed continued institutional commitment to a concentrated bitcoin treasury. From the approximately 132,500 BTC reported for February 15 to the approximately 140,000 BTC held on April 4, the position increased by about 5.66%, calculated from the company’s rounded disclosures.

The filing did not reveal individual trade times, execution venues, counterparties, custody addresses or a daily acquisition schedule. It therefore cannot support a claim that MicroStrategy’s buying caused a particular bitcoin price movement. Nor did reaching 140,000 BTC demonstrate broader corporate adoption: it documented the decisions and exposure of one issuer operating under its own treasury policy.

The defensible conclusion on April 5 was narrower. MicroStrategy had expanded its already substantial bitcoin position, lowered its disclosed cumulative average purchase cost slightly, and reaffirmed through action that bitcoin remained central to its treasury strategy despite pronounced market, banking and balance-sheet risks.