Since January, the value of shares of the American software developer MicroStrategy has grown by more than 350%. Over the past 24 hours, the company’s shares rose another 8% to $654.
MicroStrategy has been buying bitcoins (BTC) since the summer of 2020. Together with its subsidiaries, the company controls 189,150 BTC worth approximately $5.9 billion. The average price of each bitcoin purchased is $31,168.
The Seeking Alpha research notes that MicroStategy uses leveraged debt to acquire digital currency.
As of September 30, the IT giant’s total amount obligated to investors was $2.534 billion, up 7.7% year-on-year.
MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor recently said that the emergence of crypto exchange-traded funds ETFs investing in bitcoin in the U.S. should accelerate institutional adoption of the digital currency.