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Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events, Quiddity Advisors

David Blennerhassett

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events

Quiddity Advisors

Event-Driven

Full disclosure - I'm somewhat of a cryptocurrency sceptic. I think Bitcoin is not an "investment" but a "speculation." SEC officials have stated their view that bitcoin is not a “security” for purposes of the US federal securities laws. It has zero correlation with the real economy and zero fundamentals - and can potentially go to zero.  It is, in my view, digital Monopoly money.
I stop short of calling Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme. There are no centralised actors here primed to bail (or at least no publicly-self-identifying centralised actors)
BUT - and there's always a but - Bitcoin is a recognised commodity. And it is possible to obtain crypto Visa cards and store crypto in a PayPal account, which lends a certain confirmation bias with the support of these traditional financing systems. Or perhaps the transaction fees revolving around cryptos are simply too big to ignore. 
And there is an increasing number of jurisdictions world-wide granting money transmitter licenses to cryptocurrency exchanges - although news overnight of the UK watchdog banning crypto exchange Binance serves to illustrate the issues surrounding these regulated activities.  
This all brings us to <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/microstrategy-inc-cl-a" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:14717:1" rel="noopener">Microstrategy Inc Cl A (MSTR US)</a>. 
As of the<a href="https://www.microstrategy.com/en/investor-relations/press/microstrategy-acquires-additional-bitcoins-and-now-holds-over-105000-bitcoins-in-total_06-21-2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 21 June</a> MicroStrategy holds  "approximately" 105,085 bitcoins, which were acquired at an aggregate purchase price of $2.741bn and an average purchase price of $26,080/ bitcoin.
Microstrategy is, in effect, a holding company for bitcoin. Stub ops are largely immaterial.
That stash of "coins" is currently worth US$3.6bn versus Microstrategy's current market cap of US$5.4bn. This is before factoring in the three hard-currency fund-raising exercises in the past six months. Mmm.
More below the fold.

Full disclosure - I'm somewhat of a cryptocurrency sceptic. I think Bitcoin is not an "investment" but a "speculation." SEC officials have stated their view that bitcoin is not a “security” for purposes of the US federal securities laws. It has zero correlation with the real economy and zero fundamentals - and can potentially go to zero.  It is, in my view, digital Monopoly money.
I stop short of calling Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme. There are no centralised actors here primed to bail (or at least no publicly-self-identifying centralised actors)
BUT - and there's always a but - Bitcoin is a recognised commodity. And it is possible to obtain crypto Visa cards and store crypto in a PayPal account, which lends a certain confirmation bias with the support of these traditional financing systems. Or perhaps the transaction fees revolving around cryptos are simply too big to ignore. 
And there is an increasing number of jurisdictions world-wide granting money transmitter licenses to cryptocurrency exchanges - although news overnight of the UK watchdog banning crypto exchange Binance serves to illustrate the issues surrounding these regulated activities.  
This all brings us to Microstrategy Inc Cl A (MSTR US). 
As of the 21 June MicroStrategy holds  "approximately" 105,085 bitcoins, which were acquired at an aggregate purchase price of $2.741bn and an average purchase price of $26,080/ bitcoin.
Microstrategy is, in effect, a holding company for bitcoin. Stub ops are largely immaterial.
That stash of "coins" is currently worth US$3.6bn versus Microstrategy's current market cap of US$5.4bn. This is before factoring in the three hard-currency fund-raising exercises in the past six months. Mmm.
More below the fold.

Microstrategy (MSTR US): "Crypto Through The Tulips"