
Saylor's Strategy swings to quarterly profit amid crypto goldrush
In a watershed moment of legitimacy for the crypto industry, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law earlier this month.
Industry anticipation leading up to the moment helped rally bitcoin — the largest cryptocurrency — past $120,000 for the first time as investors cheered Washington's long-awaited approval on digital assets.
Strategy held 597,325 bitcoins as of June 30, at an average cost of $70,982. Bitcoin currently trades around $116,600.
It recorded a $14 billion unrealized fair value gain on digital assets during the quarter that saw corporations ranging from major U.S. banks to payment firms embrace crypto.
Until the fourth quarter of 2024, the company could only record losses when bitcoin's value fell below its purchase price, but could not recognize price increases unless it sold bitcoin.
The company's net profit was $9.97 billion, or $32.60 per share, for the three months ended June 30, compared with a loss of $102.6 million, or 57 cents per share, a year earlier.
Strategy began buying bitcoin with cash in 2020 and then started issuing low-cost convertible bonds and stock sales to finance its accumulation drive.
Its shares are up nearly 39% this year, eclipsing bitcoin's 25% climb, a phenomenon that has now inspired several public companies to pivot their operations and mimic founder Michael Saylor's buy-and-hold treasury approach.
A few among these companies are now also pivoting to smaller tokens like ether, often listing via mergers with blank-check vehicles to wrap crypto assets into equity.
Strategy's stock nearly fivefold last year, helping it secure a spot in the Nasdaq 100 index in December.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
5 minutes ago
- The Independent
Old Mars rovers can learn new tricks! NASA's Curiosity marks 13-year milestone with new science capabilities
Can you teach an old Mars rover new tricks? NASA says the answer is a resounding 'yes.' Following its landing on Mars 13 years ago, Curiosity has been given new capabilities, allowing it to do science on the Red Planet while expending less energy from its batteries. Essentially, it can now multitask. 'We were more like cautious parents earlier in the mission,' Reidar Larsen, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a statement. 'It's as if our teenage rover is maturing, and we're trusting it to take on more responsibility. As a kid, you might do one thing at a time, but as you become an adult, you learn to multitask.' Larsen led a group of engineers who developed the new capabilities for their six-wheeled teen. The agency said improvements to Curiosity will allow the rover to make the most of its energy source, which is a type of nuclear battery known as a radioisotope thermoelectric generator also used by the Perseverance rover. Managing the rover's daily power budget as the plutonium in the battery decays, Curiosity can now safely talk to a local orbiter while driving, moving its robotic arm, or snapping images. Curiosity can now decide to take a nap if it gets its work done early, ensuring there is less recharging necessary before the next day. 'Even actions that trim just 10 or 20 minutes from a single activity add up over the long haul, maximizing the life of the MMRTG for more science and exploration down the road,' the lab said in a release. These developments build on years of work developing other capabilities, including enhanced driving ability, the ability for Curiosity's head to capture panoramas without a color filter wheel on one of its 'Mastcam' cameras, a new way for Curisotiy's arm drill to collect rock and regolith samples, and an algorithm to help reduce wear and tear on the rover's wheels. The rover has recently been exploring formations of hardened ridges that were believed to have been created by underground water billions of years ago, finding rocks that were formed by the minerals deposited by ancient water flows and wind. 'A big mystery is why the ridges were hardened into these big patterns and why only here,' Curiosity's project scientist Ashwin Vasavada said earlier this year. 'As we drive on, we'll be studying the ridges and mineral cements to make sure our idea of how they formed is on target.'


Reuters
6 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trading Day: Stocks bounce back, bonds more cautious
ORLANDO, Florida, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Investors shrugged off last week's worries over the U.S. economy to drive a powerful, tech-led rebound across global stocks on Monday, although U.S. Treasuries prices held onto Friday's gains, suggesting a fair degree of caution persists. More on all that below. In my column today I look at why rather than firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, President Donald Trump could have claimed that the weak jobs data and dramatic market reaction vindicated his stance that the Fed should cut rates. If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today. Today's Key Market Moves Stocks bounce back, bonds more cautious After getting slammed on Friday by unexpectedly poor U.S. employment figures, U.S. and world stocks rebounded on Monday. Whether this is a short-term technical recovery or the resumption of the bull run of recent months remains to be seen. In isolation, the positive start to the week has been pretty impressive. Wall Street more than recovered the ground it lost on Friday, led by the Nasdaq and Russell 2000, as investors bet that both tech and small caps would be among the big winners in a lower interest rate world. The global recovery was probably overdue. The MSCI All Country index's rise on Monday snapped a six-session losing streak, its worst run in nearly two years. While Friday's slump in U.S. bond yields reflected deepening growth fears and contributed to the huge equity selloff, the further drift lower in yields on Monday supported equity sentiment. The feel good factor could prove fleeting though. The U.S.-centric issues that drove last week's selloff - growth fears, tariff concerns and unusually high levels of policy uncertainty - haven't disappeared. Trump said on Monday he will substantially raise tariffs on goods from India over its Russian oil purchases, while Switzerland says it is ready to make a "more attractive offer" to Washington to avert the steep 39% tariffs it is facing. Investors are increasingly nervous about political interference in independent U.S. institutions after Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer for allegedly rigging the jobs data. This comes amid Trump's verbal attacks on Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting interest rates, and as he prepares to announce his nomination to replace Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, who surprisingly resigned on Friday. Looking ahead to Tuesday, the U.S. earnings calendar heats up again and purchasing managers index data will give an insight into how the service sectors in many of the world's major economies fared in July. Trump scores major own goal with labor official firing U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to fire a top labor official following weak jobs data obviously sends ominous signals about political interference in independent institutions, but it is also a major strategic own goal. Trump has spent six months attacking the Federal Reserve, and Chair Jerome Powell in particular, for not cutting interest rates. The barbs culminated in Trump branding Powell a "stubborn MORON" in a social media post on Friday before the July jobs report was released. The numbers, especially the net downward revision of 258,000 for May and June payrolls growth, were much weaker than expected. In fact, this was "the largest two-month revision since 1968 outside of NBER-defined recessions (assuming the economy is not in recession now)," according to Goldman Sachs. This sparked a dramatic reaction in financial markets. Fed rate cut expectations soared, the two-year Treasury yield had its steepest fall in a year, and the dollar tumbled. A quarter-point rate cut next month and another by December were suddenly nailed-on certainties, according to rate futures market pricing. This was a huge U-turn from only 48 hours before, when Powell's hawkish steer in his post-FOMC meeting press conference raised the prospect of no easing at all this year. Trump's constant lambasting of "Too Late" Powell suddenly appeared to have a bit more substance behind it. The Fed chair's rate cut caution centers on the labor market, which now appears nowhere near as "solid" as he thought. Trump could have responded by saying: "I was right, and Powell was wrong." Instead, on Friday afternoon he said he was firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, for faking the jobs numbers. Trump provided no evidence of data manipulation. So rather than point out that markets were finally coming around to his way of thinking on the need for lower interest rates, Trump has united economists, analysts and investors in condemnation of what they say is brazen political interference typically associated with underdeveloped and unstable nations rather than the self-proclaimed 'leader of the free world.' "A dark day in, and for, the U.S.," economist Phil Suttle wrote on Friday. "This is the sort of thing only the worst populists do in the worst emerging economies and, to use the style of President Trump, IT NEVER ENDS WELL." It's important to note that major – even historic – revisions to jobs growth figures are not necessarily indicative of underlying data collection flaws. As Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at the Budget Lab at Yale, argued on X over the weekend: "BLS's first-release estimates of non-farm payroll employment have gotten more, not less, accurate over time." It should also be noted that the BLS compiles inflation as well as employment data, so, moving forward, significant doubt could surround the credibility of the two most important economic indicators for the U.S. - and perhaps the world. Part of what constitutes "U.S. exceptionalism" is the assumption that the experts leading the country's independent institutions are exactly that, independent, meaning their actions and output can be trusted, whatever the results. Baseless accusations from the U.S. president that the BLS, the Fed and other agencies are making politically motivated decisions to undermine his administration only undermine trust in the U.S. itself. "If doubts are sustained, it will lead investors to demand more of a risk premium to own U.S. assets," says Rebecca Patterson, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "While only one of many forces driving asset valuations, it will limit returns across markets." This furor comes as Fed Governor Adriana Kugler's resignation on Friday gives Trump the chance to put a third nominee on the seven-person Fed board, perhaps a potential future chair to fill that slot as a holding place until Powell's term expires in May. Whoever that person is will likely be more of a policy dove than a hawk. Policy uncertainty, which had been gradually subsiding since the April 2 'Liberation Day' tariff turmoil, is now very much back on investors' radar. What could move markets tomorrow? Want to receive Trading Day in your inbox every weekday morning? Sign up for my newsletter here. Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, opens new tab, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.


Daily Mail
6 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Elon Musk handed £22bn of Tesla shares to stop him quitting the electric car maker
Tesla has handed Elon Musk £22billion worth of shares after the tycoon threatened to quit the electric car maker. The firm said its board agreed to give its billionaire head 96m shares as part of a pay deal, according to a recent filing. Tesla's share price of $309.60 values the package at £22.3billion, but under the plan Musk must pay the company $23.34 a share – about £1.7billion. The firm said it was 'an important first step' in compensating Musk for 'his extraordinary work', adding: 'Retaining Elon is more important than ever before', and crucial in attracting new talent as Tesla shifts its business towards AI and self-driving robo-taxis. Daniel Ives, analyst at Wedbush Research, said the package would be enough to 'keep Musk as chief executive of Tesla at least until 2030,' and that he was the firm's 'most important asset'. Musk, the largest shareholder with a 12.7 per cent stake, threatened to quit if he was not given more shares, saying activist shareholders could 'easily' oust him. He and the company remain embroiled in a legal battle in Delaware over a £42billion pay award granted to Musk in 2018. That was struck down by a judge last year, who ruled it excessive. Tesla said that if the ruling is reversed on appeal, Musk will forgo the £22billion package. Its shares rose 2.2 per cent.