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Strategy added $1.08 billion in Bitcoin last week, its largest purchase in more than a month, as the company continued its relentless quest for BTC accumulation despite rising tensions in the Middle East that sent crypto prices reeling.
The Virginia-based software firm-turned Bitcoin treasury purchased 10,100 Bitcoin at an average price of $104,080 per token between June 9 and 15. Strategy now holds 592,100 Bitcoin worth over $64 billion, based on current prices, according to bitcointreasuries.net.
This is the tenth week in a row Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, has reported buying Bitcoin, according to the company's website.
The big buy came amid a volatile week for digital asset markets, including Bitcoin, which dipped nearly 5% on Friday as Israel and Iran exchanged missile attacks. The selloff wiped out more than $420 billion from the broader crypto market capitalization and triggered $1.2 billion in leveraged liquidations as the attacks tanked altcoin prices.
Traders’ jitters were also reflected in the broader stock market, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.66% and 1.17%, respectively, as investors fled to safe-haven assets such as gold and other risk-off investments.
As of Monday, Bitcoin has since retraced some of its losses, however. The world’s oldest cryptocurrency was recently trading above $108,000, up 2.4% over the past 24 hours, although BTC is flat over the past week, according to data provider CoinGecko.
The unveiling of Strategy’s latest token acquisition also comes less than a week after STRD, a Bitcoin-backed preferred stock offered by Strategy, debuted Wednesday on the NASDAQ.
Strategy is selling STRD shares to raise $250 million to build up its Bitcoin treasury. As part of the raise, the company will issue 2.5 million of its perpetual preferred shares at $100 per share, according to a statement from Strategy.
The public company’s bid to snap up more Bitcoin forms part of a broader embrace of the token as a treasury reserve asset. Two-hundred-and-thirty-five public and private companies, government bodies and other entities hold Bitcoin as of publication time, up 13% over the past month, according to data from Bitcointreasuries.net.
Edited by James Rubin