Bitcoin investment

The one-time income tax benefit helped the firm reach a profit of $94 million in the first quarter of 2023.

Business intelligence platform MicroStrategy has reiterated its commitment to its Bitcoin (BTC) investment strategy after turning its first quarterly profit since 2020. 

The Michael Saylor-founded firm went back into the green in the first quarter of 2023 with a profit of $94 million, which was largely attributed to a one-time income tax benefit of $453.2 million.

Phong Lee, the firm’s chief executive officer explained in the May 1 statement that MicroStrategy’s “conviction” in its Bitcoin (BTC) investment strategy is as “strong” as ever:

“The conviction in our bitcoin strategy remains strong as the digital asset environment continues to mature.”

In addition to the tax benefit, the firm cashed in $121.9 million in revenue, up 2.2% from the same time last year.

Please join the @MicroStrategy management team at 5pm ET as we discuss our Q1 2023 $MSTR financial results and answer questions about our business and outlook for #BusinessIntelligence and #Bitcoin.https://t.co/pHrjKvWsDU

— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) May 1, 2023

Andrew Kang, the firm’s chief financial officer said the firm also managed to reduce its leverage by repaying its $161 million Bitcoin-backed loan from the now-collapsed Silverage Bank:

“In Q1, we strengthened our capital structure by reducing leverage by fully repaying our bitcoin-backed loan.”

As per previous SEC filings, the business intelligence firm bought 7,500 BTC in Q1 across two purchases on March 23 and April 5 for a total of $179 million.

The firm now holds 140,000 BTC, which were collectively purchased at an average cost of about $29,803.

The firm’s turn to profit comes as BTC managed to rise 72% over the first quarter to about $28,300.

Related: MicroStrategy’s stock price more than doubles in 2023 in lockstep with Bitcoin

With the price of BTC at $28,100 currently, MicroStrategy is down around 5.7% on its Bitcoin investment.

The firm was however in the “green” for a period of time last month when BTC skyrocketed to its most recent high of $30,980 on April 15.

Since @MicroStrategy adopted a #Bitcoin Strategy: pic.twitter.com/rrYTbvOkUS

— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) May 1, 2023

The software analytics firm began investing its cash reserves into BTC on March 5, 2021 when it bought 91,064 BTC — 65% of its total holdings today.

Saylor recently revealed that MicroStrategy integrated Bitcoin Lightning into his corporate email address.

The Bitcoin-savvy firm is also in the process of developing a Bitcoin layer-2 Lightning Network-based Software as a Service tool for corporations.

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