MicroStrategy, the fourth-largest owner of bitcoin (BTC), did not buy any new tokens last week, Executive Chairman Michael Saylor announced on X, ending a 12-week string of purchases.
Since Nov. 11, the Tysons Corner, Virginia-based company has bought 218,887 bitcoin, according to Saylor. It currently holds 471,107 bitcoin.
While Saylor didn’t say why the company held back, a likely reason could be its impending earnings release after the market close on Feb. 5, said James Van Straten, a senior analyst at CoinDesk.
Public companies go into a so-called blackout period for some time before earnings releases to prevent insider trading. During that period, which can last days, weeks or even months, people with financial information about the company are restricted from buying or selling the company’s securities.
In MicroStrategy’s case, given that the majority of its balance sheet is bitcoin, this could include trading the cryptocurrency.
Last week, the company announced a preferred share offering of roughly $250 million to purchase even more BTC. Just a few days later, it more than doubled that amount as it sold roughly 7.3 million shares of the series.