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Emerald Crypto | Feb 24
Business Intelligence firm MicroStrategy confirmed adding more than a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin to its holdings today. The buy is the second largest known single investme...nt into Bitcoin, behind only Tesla's $1.5B transaction announced February 8th.
MicroStrategy's total Bitcoin holdings now stand at about $4.4B (at the time of this writing), which looks pretty good compared to an investment of $2.17B. CEO Michael Saylor has recently stated that his company is using excess cash to purchase BTC and that they intend to keep doing so. Saylor also won't rule out issuing new debit or equity securities to buy more of the cryptocurrency.
Saylor isn't just embracing the potential financial benefits of Bitcoin but also the underlying internet subculture. Danny Nelson of CoinDesk brings us this gem today:
“Saylor has fully steeped himself in bitcoin’s swirling meme culture. He added laser eyes to his Twitter profile in apparent unity with the #LaserRayUntil100K movement last week. On occasion he trolls gold as an inferior reserve asset. He has shown a penchant for Lord of The Rings content, liking memes in praise of the 'One Coin to Rule Them All' and retweeting videos in which he is Gandalf, leading the Rohirrim into battle against evil, evil fiat."
Meanwhile Point of Sale Solutions provider Square announced a $170M purchase of Bitcoin Tuesday, according to Yahoo! Finance. The company, founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, had previously purchased $50M worth of BTC in October of 2020. Yesterday's purchase makes Bitcoin about 5 percent of Square's cash and cash equivalents.
Square's press release had this to say:
“Aligned with the company’s purpose, Square believes that cryptocurrency is an instrument of economic empowerment, providing a way for individuals to participate in a global monetary system and secure their own financial future. The investment is part of Square’s ongoing commitment to bitcoin, and the company plans to assess its aggregate investment in bitcoin relative to its other investments on an ongoing basis.”
Square Inc. developed the popular mobile payment service CashApp, which reported over one million first-time Bitcoin buyers in January 2021. CashApp also reports that over three million users used the service to purchase BTC in 2020.
Similarly, in October 2020 online payment giant PayPal began allowing U.S.-based users to purchase four different cryptocurrencies through its platform – Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin. A similar offering will be available in the U.K. by June of this year.
Services like PayPal and CashApp are tapping into an increasing market driven by what PayPal CFO John Rainey calls 'crypto-curiosity'. More and more consumers are interested in finding out about cryptocurrencies and what they have to offer and payment service providers PayPal and CashApp are providing a point of entry.
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