Strategy Keeps Buying Bitcoin. It Isn't Helping the Stock. — Barrons.com
By Nate WolfStrategy added almost $1 billion worth of Bitcoin last week, snapping up the cryptocurrency for a second week following a brief pause in its purchases.The world's largest corporate holder of Bitcoin bought 10,645 tokens in the period from Dec. 8 to Sunday at an average price of $92,098, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing Monday. The $980.3 million haul follows $962.7 million in purchases the previous week.Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, added only 130 tokens in the last two weeks of November. But the return to buying hasn't boosted Strategy's stock.Shares dropped 6.4% on Monday, following Bitcoin lower. The stock has plummeted more than 40% this year.As is always the case with Strategy, the price of Bitcoin itself will determine where shares go next. The world's flagship cryptocurrency has plummeted roughly 30% since its October record, stagnating at around $90,000 per token since late November. The price dropped sharply again just after the stock market's opening bell on Monday, hitting $86,738.Strategy bought its $50.3 billion worth of total Bitcoin holdings at an average price of $74,972, so it hasn't lost money at this point. But shareholders waiting for returns will need Bitcoin to break that $90,000 ceiling.Another rate cut by the Federal Reserve could help, meaning traders will be closely watching the Bureau of Labor Statistics' October and November jobs data on Tuesday and its consumer price index reading on Thursday. Lower interest rates tend to encourage buying of riskier assets, such as cryptocurrencies.Write to Nate Wolf at [email protected] content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.