Bitcoin catapulted above $70,000 for the first time when the market opened at 9:30 a.m. EST on March 8. The new high was $70,170, breaking last week’s record of just over $69,000.
The token jumped above the $70,000 level briefly before selling off throughout the morning. At the time of writing, the price is moving between $68,000 and $69,000.
The new high marks a sharp move upward from earlier this week. After reaching highs on March 5, the token sold off heavily and went as low as $59,000. However, just days after touching new highs and selling off by nearly $10,000, Bitcoin has recovered to set new highs yet again.
It appears as though the drop in the price of Bitcoin was not because of a lack of investor confidence, as the price quickly spiked. Instead, analysts are looking at other factors that caused the price drop earlier this week. SkyBridge Capital Founder Anthony Scaramucci pointed out that Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) is seeing massive outflows because of arbitrage and high fees. Additionally, a large wallet sold off Bitcoins that were mined in 2010. Both of these may have contributed to the fall in price.
Regardless, Bitcoin is back to new highs and not many have lost confidence in the token. Michael Saylor and his company MicroStrategy have continued to buy Bitcoin over the past several months. The company recently sold $700 million in convertible senior notes and is using the proceeds to buy more Bitcoin.
The notes are convertible at a price of nearly $1,500 per share, which was a 42.5% premium from the closing price on the day of the announcement. The notes also have a coupon rate of 0.625%.
MicroStrategy has been acquiring Bitcoins since 2020 and has amassed nearly 200,000 tokens, which are currently worth more than $13.5 billion. Its most recent purchase in February was for 3,000 Bitcoins for $155.4 million.
The company is the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, but it does not see an end to its buying anytime soon. When asked about a potential exit strategy for the huge position, Saylor said, "Bitcoin is the exit strategy".
Using debt to buy any asset is risky, so Saylor and his team must be extremely bullish and confident in Bitcoin's future. As MicroStrategy continues to buy and Bitcoin reaches new heights, sentiment remains largely bullish in the Bitcoin community.