Bitcoin Is at Its Highest Price Since January. Strategy Buys the Cryptocurrency. — Barrons.com
By Kit NortonBitcoin prices rose Monday to their highest levels in eight months, and Strategy Inc., the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, purchased about $76 million worth of the cryptocurrency last week.Bitcoin has risen 4.7% over the past 24 hours to $85,007, according to CoinDesk. The cryptocurrency traded as high as $85,412 intraday, its highest since Jan. 29. Bitcoin also was on pace for its highest 4 p.m. Eastern time price level since Jan. 28, when it traded at $89,004.47, according to Dow Jones Market Data.Crypto stocks advanced along with the cryptocurrency. Strategy rose 9% to $167.63 on Monday after ending Friday up 16%. Digital-asset exchange Coinbase Global was up 5.4% while online trading platform Robinhood Markets gained 1.5%.Strategy said in a regulatory filing Monday it acquired 950 Bitcoin last week for a total of $75.7 million. It was the company's first Bitcoin purchase in about three weeks. The company, formerly known as MicroStrategy, said the average purchase price was $79,670 each. Strategy currently holds 846,000 Bitcoin that were acquired at an average purchase price of about $75,416 a piece.StoneX Equity Research analyst Mark Palmer noted that with Strategy's Bitcoin purchase, the company's holdings represented about 4% of the cryptocurrency's 21-million fixed supply. Palmer has a Buy rating on Strategy with a $435 price target.It's been a good run for Bitcoin prices, seemingly against all the odds. Prices of the cryptocurrency have risen four of the past five days and have advanced more than 7% this month.Bitcoin has also closed above its 50-week moving average for the first time in about ten months which has shifted the debate from whether Bitcoin is bottoming to whether a new bull market is beginning, according to CoinMarketCap.That performance has come even as the Clarity Act collapsed and the Federal Reserve boosted interest rates. But the world's largest cryptocurrency has shown resilience as the Securities and Exchange Commission last week issued temporary exemptions that would make it easier to offer tokenized stocks to investors.The failure of the Clarity Act might ordinarily have been expected to weigh on cryptocurrencies but investors have largely looked past it and have focused on the agencies responsible for interpreting and enforcing existing regulation."Traders are adding leverage into strength rather than being squeezed into it. That is a healthier composition than the market had during this year's failed rallies," said head of research at CoinMarketCap, Alice Liu, on Monday.While the sentiment around the Clarity Act has quickly shifted, the SEC exemptions have also been a major reason for the recent rally in cryptocurrencies and crypto-related stocks.The exemptions expand product and monetization opportunity for brokers while potentially increasing competitive pressure on traditional exchanges, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Cyprys.The analyst believes that this move should benefit Robinhood and Coinbase.Write to Kit Norton at [email protected] content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.