:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-2246608748-0abdaf873cb64bc99e7b29d00aecb5b4.jpg "Bitcoin Has Gone to the Bears. Saylor’s Strategy Is Still Leaning In.")
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/GettyImages-2246608748-0abdaf873cb64bc99e7b29d00aecb5b4.jpg)
Key Takeaways
- The price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency recently traded below $92,000 for the first time in months.
- At least one backer is still buying in: Strategy said it bought an additional 8,178 bitcoin at an average purchase price of around $102,000.
Bitcoin has gone to the bears. At least one bull is hanging on.
The world’s best-known and most-valuable cryptocurrency recently changed hands below $92,000 apiece, with recent prices representing a more-than-25% retreat from the record highs of over $126,000 seen last month. That has the coin in what’s sometimes called a bear market, or a drop of at least 20% from a recent high.
What was supposed to be a banner year for crypto and its biggest coin in market cap terms is looking like a bust. Between a friendlier crypto president in the White House, a less enforcement-minded chairman at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and stablecoin legislation signed into law, all the pieces were in place to drive prices to the moon, as the bullish saying goes.
Why This Matters to Investors
Bitcoin is a volatile holding, which investors tend not to worry about when it rises. More recently it has fallen into bear market territory, dropping precipitously from October record highs as investors have grown more wary about risk assets.
But things have gone the other way. The crypto industry in October suffered its biggest liquidation event in history as more than $19 billion in leveraged positions were wiped out, kickstarting a slide that has pulled bitcoin into the red for the year.
Last week, investors were looking to Strategy (MSTR) and evangelist Michael Saylor for a sign of where things were headed. Saylor was characteristically sanguine, as he always is, and promised to have good news. And the company delivered, revealing on Monday that it bought an additional 8,178 bitcoin at an average price of $102,171, or a little over $835 million all in, between Nov. 10 and Nov. 16.
That brings its total stockpile to 649,870 coins, valued at just under $60 billion at current prices. The purchases were funded using the proceeds of its preferred stock offerings.
That said, individuals own the biggest slice of the bitcoin ownership pie, at about two thirds. Their trades collectively have a bigger impact than funds and ETFs’, which own about 8%, and businesses, the category to which Strategy belongs, with 6%.
