MicroStrategy Sees Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Option Block Trades

MicroStrategy saw hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of block trades in options Tuesday just as shares were climbing more than 9%, buoyed by rising $Bitcoin (BTC.CC)$ prices. 

At 11:52:05 a.m. in New York Tuesday, an active seller collected a premium of $211.9 million for issuing call options that give their holders the right to buy 26.4 million $MicroStrategy(MSTR)$   shares at $270 each in 24 days. That's the day's biggest block trade posted involving any stock option. 

That multi-leg transaction came with a purchase of call options that give their holder the right to buy the same number of MicroStrategy shares at $330 each, with the same expiration date of May 16. That could mean the seller of those $270 call options rolled the contract to the higher strike price to take advantage of the share price rally.

Shares of the software company whose business model includes buying and holding Bitcoin jumped 8% Tuesday, taking this year’s gains to almost 20%. That stock rally contrasts with a more than 10% decline for the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ in 2025, and an almost 13% slump for the $NASDAQ 100 Index (.NDX.US)$. 

The largest cryptocurrency climbed back above $90,000 for the first time since March, fueling optimism that Bitcoin is living up to its reputation as “digital gold,” that could serve as a haven in times of market turmoil. 

On Monday, the company that does business as Strategy, said it added 6,555 Bitcoins to its holdings between April 14 and 20, paying an average price of $84,785 for each of the tokens. The purchase was funded from the proceeds of its at-the-market offerings of class A common stock and preferred stock, taking its total holdings to 538,200 Bitcoins, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

MicroStrategy is just one of the 91 public companies that hold the cryptocurrency in their treasuries or as custodian assets and Bloomberg Intelligence strategists said the complicated global trade environment that has roiled markets is further boosting the appeal of Bitcoin. 

Bitcoin now has a much lower 10-day volatility compared with the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ and the $NASDAQ 100 Index (.NDX.US)$, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. 

That's because the cryptocurrency “is less exposed to derivatives and program trading, and some corporate managers could revisit whether it could be more resilient in the complicated global trade environment as a hedge against a weakening US dollar, the risk of stagflation and fears of potential peaking of US exceptionalism,” Lu Yeung and Breanne Dougherty, Bloomberg Intelligence strategists wrote in a note Tuesday. 

Public companies own a combined 710,852 Bitcoin, second only to exchange traded funds (ETFs) and other funds, data from BitcoinTreasuries.net showed. MicroStrategy's stake now worth an estimated $48.85 billion, according to the data. 

Still, the new accounting rule for fair-value adjustments beginning December 2024 has fueled pushbacks in treasury management because of the impact on profit-and-loss from the cryptocurrency's price swings, according to the strategists. 

In early April, MicroStrategy disclosed a $5.91 billion unrealized loss on digital assets in the first quarter ended March 31 as the price of Bitcoin slumped. While the company took a hit during the decline, $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ reported a $600 million gain from the new accounting rule in January, when Bitcoin was up 9%, adding to cryptocurrency's 465% climb in the two years that ended December 2024. 

Tesla holds 11,509 Bitcoins worth more than $1 billion, the sixth largest holding among public companies, behind MicroStrategy, $MARA Holdings (MARA.US)$, $Riot Platforms (RIOT.US)$, $Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd (GLXY.CA)$ and $CleanSpark (CLSK.US)$, according to BitcoinTreasuries.net. 

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