Despite poor crypto market conditions, MicroStrategy reported a narrowed net loss of $27.1 million in its third-quarter earnings.
Its CEO says the company will continue to buy and hold Bitcoin for a long time despite its losses relative to previous earnings.
At the end of Q3 2022, it confirmed that it still owned 130,000 BTC. It says that the $4 billion cost, or $30,639 per bitcoin, represented 0.62% of all Bitcoin held at the time of the acquisition.
As of Nov. 1, the company reported $727,00 in impairment charges. Its second-quarter 2022 earnings were $917.8 million, compared to $65 million for the same quarter in 2021. Throughout the last quarter of this year, Bitcoin prices remained stable.
According to MicroStrategy, as of Sept. 30, it had cumulative impairment losses of approximately $2 billion. This accounting term is used to describe a reduction in the value of assets.
Phong Le, president, and CEO of MicroStrategy reiterated the firm’s long-term growth strategy during an earnings call, saying We have not sold any Bitcoin to date. To reiterate our strategy, we seek to acquire and hold Bitcoin long-term. And we do not currently plan to engage in sales of Bitcoin. We have a long-term time horizon, and the near-term Bitcoin price fluctuations do not impact the core business.”
Despite stepping down as CEO on Aug. 8, Michael Saylor remains the company’s executive chairman. He stated during the conference call that since the company began its Bitcoin strategy on Aug. 11, 2020, the share price of the company has increased 116% compared to bitcoin’s 72% increase.
CEO Andrew Yang noted the following in the accompanying earnings report of the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board’s decision to support “fair value accounting” for bitcoin with fair value accounting. We believe bitcoin holdings will benefit from improved intangible accounting treatment than they currently receive, and this will further promote institutional adoption of Bitcoin.
MicroStrategy reported a loss of $0.96 per share. This is in contrast to analysts’ estimates of $0.94. Revenues of $125.4 million exceeded expectations by only 0.5%.
Over the past year, the firm has generated revenues of $119.3 million in Q1 and $122.1 million in Q2. According to MicroStrategy, its subscription services generated $16.4 million in revenue in Q3, a 51% increase over the year before.