Strategy's stock is 'essentially the altcoin of tradfi,' Bitwise strategist says

For several years, many traders used Strategy's stock as a sort of a proxy for trading bitcoin, given the company's substantial BTC holdings. The company's bitcoin treasury adoption has helped its stock surge 2,500% over the past five years, compared to a 1,500% appreciation in the price of bitcoin .

Jeff Park, head of alpha strategies at the crypto asset manager Bitwise, has a slightly different proxy analogy: "I think of MicroStrategy as essentially the altcoin of tradfi."

Park appeared earlier this week on the Castle Island Ventures podcast, wherein he discussed the stock's correlation to the crypto market.

"It's got this unique feature where it has volatility that looks a little bit different than Bitcoin," Park said, adding that Strategy's return on a recent day was significantly higher than that of bitcoin's. "So you already see that MicroStrategy behaves a little bit differently, more akin to altcoin behavior that tradfi investors can find access to."

Park said the other unique property of Strategy is that there's demand for it because some retail investors are still not allowed to buy a spot Bitcoin ETF.

"Unbelievably, I believe there are still some brokerages that will not permit you to buy the Blackrock [or] Bitwise Bitcoin ETF, but they'll let you buy MicroStrategy," he said. "So there's going to be a demand for that from a structural perspective."

Strategy's capital structure is 'most compelling'

However, the part the strategist finds most compelling for the institutional audience is how Strategy's capital structure is diverse enough that you can trade relative value "in a thoughtful way to extract alpha that is more than just trading bitcoins directionality."

"MicroStrategy has fairly simple capital structure, but a lot of different instruments, at the very top being the converts, but now actually there's a preferred equity piece in between and above the common equity," Park said, referencing STRK, the firm's perpetual strike preferred stock it launched at the end of January.

Earlier this week, Strategy said it is seeking to raise up to $21 billion via sales of its 8% series A perpetual strike preferred stock. This comes in addition to the company's "21/21 plan," which targets a total capital raise of $42 billion in equity offerings and fixed-income securities for bitcoin acquisitions.

Park highlighted that Strategy offers multiple securities catering to different risk preferences, creating arbitrage opportunities for investors. He noted that this dynamic has contributed to Strategy's market prominence, with its options and convertible markets becoming some of the largest in any single security.

"I think there was a day last year when MicroStrategy stock volume exceeded Nvidia on a daily basis, which was a historic thing," Park said. "And the reason is, the financialization of Bitcoin is the most interesting thing for most people to find exposure to... So there's essentially a lot of financialization around Bitcoin via MicroStrategy that has created a very interesting market."

With over 70 companies holding bitcoin as a corporate treasury asset, the crypto asset manager recently launched  the Bitwise Bitcoin Standard Corporations ETF, which will hold the stocks of these companies holding over 1,000 bitcoin in their treasury. Strategy is the largest holding of that fund, as it currently owns 499,096 BTC worth over $41 billion.

Strategy has 1,400 institutional owners and shareholders holding about $34 billion worth of MSTR, according to Fintel data. Vanguard, the world's second-largest asset manager, is MSTR's largest shareholder with 16.3 million shares. Capital International Investors owns 12.5 million MSTR shares, followed by BlackRock's 11.2 million shares, according to fourth-quarter 13F filings.

Institutions also hold nearly $37 billion worth of options in MSTR, more than double the previous quarter's total, according to 13f.info. Susquehanna International Group owns put options on 16.8 million shares of MSTR, while Jane Street holds the more bullish call option position of 13.6 million shares.

Last month, Strategy reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $670.8 million, largely due to a $1 billion impairment on its bitcoin holdings, while increasing its BTC reserves to a record 471,107 BTC. With a recent accounting change allowing unrealized bitcoin gains to be recognized, analysts suggest that MSTR could be on track for SP 500 inclusion later this year.