MicroStrategy widens losses after $170m Bitcoin impairment charge
MicroStrategy deepened losses in the first quarter after facing a $170.1m impairment charge linked to its Bitcoin holdings.
The company yesterday revealed that in the first three months of the year net losses widened from $112m to $133m while revenue dipped by three per cent, falling from $123m to $119m. Over the quarter MicroStrategy, which is led by Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor, snapped up 4,827 new Bitcoins adding to a stockpile of 129,200 BTC (£4bn).
“We continued to see strong results across both of our corporate strategies in the first quarter of 2022,” said Saylor.
“We also furthered our position as the leading public company investor in bitcoin through the issuance of our first bitcoin-backed term
loan… Today, MicroStrategy is the world’s largest publicly traded corporate owner of Bitcoin.”
Earlier this year the firm was told by the US’ financial watchdog that it was not allowed to strip out Bitcoin’s wild price swings from its accounting measures. Yesterday’s results are the first set of financials to take consideration of the price volatility of crypto.
Over the past three months the price of Bitcoin has declined by 17 per cent while the global crypto market has shaved 21 per cent from its value. The company’s share price is down by 6.39 per cent today and has tumbled by 37 per cent this year to date.
The company also announced Andrew Kang, the former chief executive of tech company Greensky, will take over from Phong Le as chief financial officer later this month. Le will continue in his role as Microstrategy president according to an announcement.
Read more: Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy snaps up another 4,167 Bitcoin – worth $190 million