Bitcoin Giant Strategy Records $12.4 Billion Q4 Loss as MSTR Shares Hit 18-Month Low

In brief

• Strategy reported a fourth-quarter loss of $12.4 billion.
• The company’s stock price fell to its lowest point in 18 months.
• Bitcoin slipped below Strategy’s average purchase price this week.

Strategy announced fourth-quarter earnings against a precarious backdrop on Thursday, with losses mounting on paper for the Bitcoin-buying firm amid the asset’s latest slide. With Bitcoin changing hands around $63,000, the company faced an unrealized loss of nearly $9 billion on its holdings, which were worth around $45.4 billion. After spending $54.2 billion on Bitcoin since 2020, the asset’s price dipped below Strategy’s average purchase price of $76,000 earlier this week. Strategy generated a fourth-quarter net loss of $12.4 billion, or $42.93 per share, as Bitcoin tumbled from an all-time high above $126,000 in October. Throughout the three-month period ended Dec. 31, the company added around 35,000 Bitcoin to its corporate coffers. 

In advance of its latest earnings results, Strategy shares plunged more than 17% to $107, according to Yahoo Finance. That represented their lowest level in a year and a half. The company’s stock price has plummeted around 71% over the past six months. “Strategy has built a digital fortress anchored by 713,502 Bitcoin and our shift to digital credit, which aligns with our indefinite Bitcoin horizon," Strategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said in a statement to shareholders. Saylor, known for his buy-and-never-sell attitude toward Bitcoin, posted “HODL”—or “hold on for dear life” in crypto lingo—on X before the earnings results were released. Over the years, the phrase has become a rallying cry for die-hards in the cryptosphere. Saylor’s bullishness may be steadfast, but investors have grown increasingly frustrated with the firm as shares have fallen 76% from a high of $457 last year. Other observers fear that Bitcoin could come under further strain if Strategy decides to sell its BTC holdings, which Saylor acknowledged as a possibility last year.

Strategy’s swoon has outpaced Bitcoin’s 44% decline over the past six months, leaving investors wary toward the company positing itself as a leveraged Bitcoin bet, which has accumulated its stockpile through a combination of preferred shares and convertible debt. Last year, the company established cash reserves to avail concerns that it might not be able to make dividend payments on its preferred stock. With $2.25 billion in the bank, Strategy’s website says the funds can cover dividend payments for 30 months. Strategy President and CEO Phong Lee highlighted the adoption of Strategy’s variable rate, or STRC, preferred share. He described the product that currently pays 11.25% monthly as the company’s “flagship Digital Credit instrument” at $3.4 billion in size. Meanwhile, the company’s enterprise value has drawn close to the value of its Bitcoin holdings, yielding a so-called mNAV of 1.1, per Strategy’s website. Strategy’s measurement takes into consideration its debt and cash, while other metrics look purely at market capitalization. In that sense, Strategy has been valued at a discount to its Bitcoin since late November. As that premium has vanished over the past year, it’s become increasingly difficult for the company to increase the amount of Bitcoin that it owns per share by issuing common stock, among its most common moves. Traders on Myriad, a prediction market owned by Decrypt’s parent company DASTAN, penciled in a 32% chance on Thursday that the company will sell some of its Bitcoin holdings this year. That represented a notable increase from 10% a week ago.