MicroStrategy boss Michael Saylor is one of the most prominent bitcoin bulls.
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Software company MicroStrategy has raised $500 million in bonds that it will use to buy bitcoin. The deal, dubbed “hedge fund heavy,” obtained about $1.6 billion in demand, sources told Insider. Hedge funds got in at the last minute to avoid “FOMO,” one person said. See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Cryptocurrencies are creeping into the traditional financial markets where hard, reserve currencies still rule the roost.
MicroStrategy raised the first-ever junk bond that will be used to buy bitcoin this week, as it looks to build a war chest of cryptocurrency. The software company’s $500 million bond follows two convertible bond sales the company did in February this year and December 2020, which were both used to fund bitcoin purchases.
The transaction represents a certain recognition of cryptocurrency by conventional financial markets, and is a sign that investors are willing to make risky bets on the volatile upstart currency amid a search for greater returns in a world of rock-bottom interest rates. The managers funding the deal won’t directly be invested in crypto,