MicroStrategy Remains Bullish on Bitcoin Despite $1.3B Loss

According to software corporation MicroStrategy’s fourth-quarter and annual earnings reports for 2022, they suffered impairment losses of almost $1.3 billion over the full year from Bitcoin holdings, CoinTelegraph reported.

The corporation will persevere despite the paper losses. Andrew Kang, CFO of MicroStrategy, said on an earnings call that they would carry out other transactions to benefit from Bitcoin price volatility or other “market dislocations” that were in line with their BTC strategy, which involves long-term holding.

MicroStrategy outperformed BTC as an index

On the same call, cofounder Michael Saylor stated that the company used several different benchmarks to measure stock performance, with Bitcoin’s performance being the critical one. He added that MicroStrategy had managed to outperform Bitcoin as an index since it started buying Bitcoin in 2020.

He said that MicroStrategy’s shares had gained 117% in that period of time. In comparison, Bitcoin’s value had increased by 98%. He remains bullish on the asset, saying:

The only real safe haven for an institutional investor is Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the only universally acknowledged digital commodity, and so if you're an investor, Bitcoin is your safe haven in this regard.

End-2022 holdings amounted to $1.84B

As of end-2022, MicroStrategy held 132,500 BTC according to Kang, with a value of $1.84 billion. The business held 14,890 BTC directly. Its subsidiary MacroStrategy LLC held the rest.

Around the same time, MicroStrategy made its first sale of Bitcoin holdings. They sold 704 BTC to compensate a $34 million tax loss. Despite that sale, Kang reported the company had added another 2,500 BTC to its net holdings during the quarter.

MicroStrategy's Q4 results beat Wall Street predictions with total revenue of $132.6 billion. The company lost around $22 per share in the final quarter of the year.