MicroStrategy shares up 180% this year after debt sale to buy more bitcoin spurs latest rally

Whenever Michael Saylor utters the word "bitcoin," MicroStrategy shares pop. He has been doing a lot of uttering lately.

On Monday, the MicroStrategy founder posted on social media platform X that his company had just purchased another 12,000 bitcoins for close to $822 million "using proceeds from convertible notes & excess cash." That brings MicroStrategy's total holdings to 205,000 bitcoins, which are now worth more than $15 billion, as the cryptocurrency continues to hit fresh highs.

Bitcoin rose 2.7% on Wednesday, topping $73,400.

MicroStrategy, a company that develops software but serves primarily as a proxy for bitcoin, climbed 11% on Wednesday, following Tuesday's 7.4% rally, which followed Monday's 4.1% gain and Friday's 9.7% jump. The stock is now up 68% since March 6, the day the company announced the pricing of a debt sale, and has rocketed 180% this year after soaring 346% in 2023.

Saylor told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday that bitcoin is going to "eat gold." He said many more institutional investors are going to own the digital currency as it gets added to exchange-traded funds. Plus, Saylor is bullish on next month's halving process, which occurs every four years and slows the supply of coins, reducing the amount of selling.

"The price of bitcoin is going to have to adjust up in order to meet that investor demand," Saylor said. "That's what's going to happen next for the asset class."

MicroStrategy said on Monday that it had completed an offering of 0.625% convertible notes due in 2030, with net proceeds of about $782 million. Canaccord Genuity analysts wrote in a note that day that they believe it's the first $800 million convert due in 2030 that is marketed at a coupon rate below 1% with such a high conversion