Group One – a proprietary trading firm – has purchased options to buy 1.3 million shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR) worth $240 million, per a recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
As reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday, the purchase would account for a 13.5% stake in MicroStrategy, whose executive chairman is the Bitcoin booster, Michael Saylor.
Group One is a market maker and liquidity provider for U.S. equity options and other securities.
MicroStrategy is an enterprise software company famous for being one of the world’s single largest holders of BTC. The company owns over 131,000 coins, while Saylor personally owns another 17,000.
Given its massive exposure to the asset, MSTR has become a proxy for U.S. investors seeking exposure to Bitcoin. The United States currently lacks a Bitcoin spot ETF, meaning formal avenues for gaining direct exposure are limited for U.S. investors.
As such, MSTR was also a victim to Bitcoin’s tumultuous 2022, declining 74% across the year.
MicroStrategy suffered a $1 billion impairment loss on its Bitcoin in Q2 2022. Michael Saylor relinquished his position as CEO around this time, but the company remained committed to its Bitcoin strategy.
The firm conducted its first-ever Bitcoin sale late last year for 704 BTC, but only to generate a tax benefit by purchasing those coins back only days later. Nevertheless, this technically constitutes a broken promise from Michael Saylor that MicroStrategy would never sell its coins.
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