By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) shares plunged in Monday’s premarket trading by 8% over worries about the value of the company's Bitcoin holdings as China cracked down further on cryptos over the weekend.
The company released a statement saying it has approximately 105,085 bitcoins. They were acquired for $2.74 billion at an average purchase price of $26,080, inclusive of fees and expenses. It said its subsidiary MacroStrategy LLC holds approximately 92,079 bitcoins.
According to the state backed Global Times newspaper, many Bitcoin mines in Southwest China's Sichuan Province - one of China's largest cryptocurrency mining bases - were closed amid an intensifying nationwide crackdown against cryptocurrency mining.
Sichuan is China's second-biggest bitcoin mining province and the country accounts for more than half of global bitcoin production.
The business analytics company is among the biggest corporate investors in bitcoin, with several billion dollars in holdings on its books.
The news of the Chinese action dragged prices of digital currencies over the weekend and into Monday.
Bitcoin extended its weekend losses and was down 4% to trade around $32,500-levels. Ethereum shed 5% while Dogecoin was down 13%. Polkadot pDOTn/USD fell 9%.
Crypto exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) was down 3% premarket.