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MicroStrategy Pauses Weekly Bitcoin Purchases Ahead of Earnings

The company reports fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday.

MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor has been announcing the company's bitcoin purchases on his X profile. (CoinDesk archives)
MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor has been announcing the company's bitcoin purchases on his X profile. (CoinDesk archives)

What to know:

  • MicroStrategy ended its 12-week streak of bitcoin purchases last week.
  • The company had been buying bitcoin on a weekly basis since Nov. 11, bringing its total holdings to 471,107 bitcoin.
  • The reason for the break could be Wednesday's earnings report, for which it might have a blackout period, a CoinDesk analyst said.

MicroStrategy, the fourth-largest owner of bitcoin (BTC), did not buy any new tokens last week, Executive Chairman Michael Saylor announced on X, ending a 12-week string of purchases.

Since Nov. 11, the Tysons Corner, Virginia-based company has bought 218,887 bitcoin, according to Saylor. It currently holds 471,107 bitcoin.

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While Saylor didn't say why the company held back, a likely reason could be its impending earnings release after the market close on Feb. 5, said James Van Straten, a senior analyst at CoinDesk.

Public companies go into a so-called blackout period for some time before earnings releases to prevent insider trading. During that period, which can last days, weeks or even months, people with financial information about the company are restricted from buying or selling the company's securities.

In MicroStrategy’s case, given that the majority of its balance sheet is bitcoin, this could include trading the cryptocurrency.

Last week, the company announced a preferred share offering of roughly $250 million to purchase even more BTC. Just a few days later, it more than doubled that amount as it sold roughly 7.3 million shares of the series.

Helene Braun

Helene is a New York-based news reporter at CoinDesk, covering news about Wall Street, the rise of the spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and updates on crypto exchanges. She is also the co-host of CoinDesk's Markets Daily show on Spotify and Youtube. Helene is a recent graduate of New York University's business and economic reporting program and has appeared on CBS News, YahooFinance and Nasdaq TradeTalks. She holds BTC and ETH.

Helene Braun