Today, on the 16th anniversary of the release of the Bitcoin Whitepaper by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy and prominent Bitcoin advocate, went public with a “Thank you, Satoshi” message on his X account.
This is not the end of the story, as his farewell caption was accompanied by a screenshot of MicroStrategy’s stock prospectus supplement, which implies raising $21 billion in capital through the sale of Class A common stock.
The news that the software producer is looking to raise $42 billion over the next three years broke yesterday in the midst of MicroStrategy’s earnings report.
Thank You, Satoshi. pic.twitter.com/LGH575CXVT
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) October 31, 2024
Specifically, half, or $21 billion, will be raised through the sale of MSTR stock. There is symbolism here, a sort of homage to Satoshi and Bitcoin, as the initial total supply of the major cryptocurrency is exactly 21 million BTC. This is also what Saylor seemed to be referring to in his message to Satoshi today.
The company plans to use the funds raised by this offering to buy more Bitcoin.
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Interestingly, the prospectus notes that fluctuations in the future price of BTC could result in the company having to convert the cryptocurrency purchased with the funds into cash at a value significantly lower than the initial offering proceeds.
MicroStrategy has currently invested nearly $10 billion to acquire 252,200 BTC. With the new offering, the software maker could double its previous investment, bringing the total to $30 billion once the deal is closed.
