The Impact of BTC ETFs on MicroStrategy Stock
The approval of nine spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. triggered a significant reaction among investors. Concerns quickly arose regarding the potential impact of these listings on stocks, particularly on Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR). This worry was not unfounded, at least initially, as evidenced by a dramatic 20% drop in MicroStrategy’s stock value over a 48-hour period in January, indicating a mass sell-off by investors.
However, the fears have since been proven unwarranted as Bitcoin’s price surge led to MSTR stock skyrocketing even faster – despite the competition from BTC ETFs – and few have benefitted from the 116% year-to-date rise as quickly and fully as certain MicroStrategy insiders.
Insider Sales at MicroStrategy
Among the insiders, Michael Saylor, the executive chairman, has sold the most MSTR shares. Since the start of the year, Saylor offloaded more than $150 million worth of the stock and as much as $23 million in the last week.
Multiple other senior officials of the company have also been making extensive sales in recent months. Jeanine Montgomery, SVP & CAO, for example, sold $1 million worth of MSTR shares on March 1, and Phong Le, the president and CEO, offloaded nearly $10 million on the same day. Carl Rickertsen, a director at MicroStrategy, also made a massive sale of 12,000 shares on February 14, worth more than $8 million at the time.
MicroStrategy Stock Performance
While significant insider sales are often the herald of a major downturn and, given the company’s recent stock market performance, some are beginning to worry whether a MicroStrategy stock crash is incoming, MSTR has yet to show a sign of slowing down.
Despite starting the year slow – and even declining for a time – MicroStrategy shares are 116.63% in the green since 2024 started. A similar strength is observable in the last 30 days and the last 7 days of trading as the stock is up 106.86% and 19.72% respectively in the time frames.
The latest trading session was, however, fairly volatile but MSTR managed to end the day’s trading 4.11% in the green at $1484.23. Finally, MicroStrategy is also on the rise in Tuesday’s premarket, and the stock is 4.69% up by the time of publication.
MicroStrategy’s BTC Holdings
A possible reason for MicroStrategy’s strong extended-hours performance is that the company has proven undeterred by Bitcoin’s setting new all-time highs, having found a footing near $72,000.
Michael Saylor’s firm has, on March 11, acquired 12,000 additional BTC for just under $822 million meaning that Microstrategy Bitcoin holdings now exceed 200,000 coins.