MicroStrategy‘s weekly Bitcoin purchases, disclosed early Monday, again declined compared with the week before.
MicroStrategy is the world’s largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
The company bought $209 million worth of the digital token between Dec. 23 and Sunday for an average price of $97,837 per Bitcoin, according to a securities filing. It now holds 446,400 Bitcoins in total, worth about $41.4 billion based on Monday’s price of $92,678 per coin.
MicroStrategy stock closed lower 8.2% at $302.96 on Monday.
Shares of MicroStrategy, the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, are closely linked to the price of the currency. The price of Bitcoin is down about 2% in the past week, according to CoinDesk data.
MicroStrategy operates a software business but it is better known as an investor in Bitcoin. Monday’s filing marked the eighth straight week in which the company reported issuing securities and using the proceeds to purchase more Bitcoin, according to Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer.
In a MicroStrategy securities filing last week, it said it bought $561 million worth of Bitcoin, down from $1.5 billion the week before that. On Dec. 9, it said weekly purchases amounted to $2.1 billion.
It isn’t clear what has prompted the decline in weekly purchases. It could be that it is getting more difficult to fund the continuous buying of Bitcoin with prices at historically high levels. A second possibility, which may be a bigger concern for investors, is that MicroStrategy is getting less bullish on the crypto given that the price has more than doubled this year.
MicroStrategy didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Despite the smaller purchases, TD Cowen analyst Lance Vitanza said MicroStrategy appears set to expand its Bitcoin treasury operations. He predicted the stock will continue to outpace gains in Bitcoin over the medium and long term, rating shares at Buy with a price target of $550.
The stock is up almost 400% this year, mainly because of expectations that the incoming Trump administration will treat the crypto industry favorably. MicroStrategy’s market value rose enough for it to be added to the Nasdaq 100 index earlier this month.
Bitcoin has risen about 108% this year.