Buying bitcoins

Analyst software maker MicroStrategy has raised its plan to raise $100m to $500m in light of the high oversubscription of its latest bond offering, Bloomberg reports.

The company intends to use the funding to buy bitcoin. According to the source, MicroStrategy has received bids for $1.6 billion from interested investors, including a large number of hedge funds. The company had previously raised more than $1 billion in two rounds in a similar fashion. The $400 million originally offered was no longer in line with demand when the plan was revealed on Monday, Bloomberg adds.

The source also said that the company was offering bonds with yields ranging from 6.125% to 6.25% less than during earlier discussions, when it was talking about 6.25-6.5%.

Market participants speculated that the fall in the price of bitcoin would make it less attractive to big investors and MicroStrategy would not be able to close the latest round at the desired mark.

Together with the latest investment, the number of bitcoins in MicroStrategy's reserves is expected to exceed 100,000 coins.

MicroStrategy had previously written in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that its quarterly loss due to the decline in bitcoin would be around $284.5 million. That amount exceeds the company's total earnings since 2011, excluding investments in the cryptocurrency.