Four technology giants from around the world have been quick to jump on the Bitcoin bandwagon. And they are likely enjoying the multifold gains.
Bitcoin frenzy
Three firms from the US and one firm from China have brought over 66% of all new BTC mined in the past six months, figures show.
Business analytics software company MicroStrategy, payments firm Square, and electric carmaker Tesla from the US have purchased billions of dollars worth of BTC, while Chinese photo-editing app Meitu—a Hong Kong-listed company—purchased $17 million worth of the asset earlier this month.
Tesla, MicroStrategy, Square & Meitu have bought 40% of the annual new supply of #Bitcoin in the last 6 months.
— Bitcoin Archive
(@BTC_Archive) March 15, 2021
Microstrategy started purchasing BTC in August and now holds over 90,000 Bitcoin (≈$5 billion), Tesla holds over 39,473 BTC (or $2,1 billion; as per prices on its Feb 8 announcement), Square holds 3,318 BTC ($184 million), while Meitu holds over 330 BTC ($18 million; as per prices on its March 8 announcement).
That’s a total of 133,000 BTC, and there’s much more buying pressure incoming: Many firms are in line to purchase more of the asset in the coming months, such as Norwegian holding company Aker, which announced a $60 million Bitcoin investment earlier this year.
The numbers
The figure represents over 66% of all BTC mined in the past six months. For the uninitiated, new Bitcoin is generated as rewards to ‘miners,’ or entities who utilize huge computing power to process transactions and maintain the network while receiving BTC as a ‘reward.’
Over 6.25 BTC are released each block. Miners usually sell them on the open market to cover the massive costs involved, and this supply is considered to be the “new” Bitcoin. Roughly 144 blocks are mined per day (releasing 900 new Bitcoin in the process), meaning over 27,000 Bitcoin are mined per month.
Such an emission schedule means over 200,000 BTC have been mined ever since MicroStrategy started its purchasing frenzy in August 2020.
The firm is not done with its purchases either, with CEO Michael Saylor stating in a release earlier last month: “We will continue to pursue our strategy of acquiring BTC with excess cash,” he said, adding the firm would continue to issue debt or equity securities in capital raising transactions with the sole objective of purchasing even more of the asset.
Bitcoin trades at over $55,400 at press time and is down over 10% since the start of this week.
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