Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, MicroStrategy stocks climb follow bitcoin higher

With Monday's surge in bitcoin ( BTC-USD ), the companies that hold bitcoin saw their stocks rise even more, with two prominent beneficiaries being Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ( OTC:GBTC ), up 13% , and MicroStrategy ( NASDAQ: MSTR ), up 1 0%. In Monday afternoon trading, bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) has gained 2.4% over the past 24 hours, breaking above $17K for the first time since Dec. 15. GBTC's purpose is to hold bitcoin ( BTC-USD ), while MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) is a software firm that holds bitcoin on its balance sheet. Its chairman, Michael Saylor, believes the digital asset holds less risk than cash or gold. As of Dec. 27, MicroStrategy's ( MSTR ) held ~132.5K bitcoins ( BTC-USD ), giving its stash a value of ~$2.21B at the time. With the recent rise in bitcoin, its holdings now stand at ~$2.92B. Earlier in December, MSTR sold ~704 bitcoin for $11.8M and plans to carry back capital losses from the transaction against previous capital gains. By comparison, Block ( SQ ) has a relatively small bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) holding. As of Sept. 30, 2022, its investment in the token had dropped to $111.3M from $149.0M at Dec. 31, 2021, according to its Q3 10-Q filing. The payments tech company had invested a total of $220M in bitcoin in 2020 and 2021. Block ( SQ ) stock increased 1.5% in Monday afternoon trading. SA contributor Investor Trip advises to ignore the MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) haters and hold through the crypto winter. Meanwhile, The Digital Trend said GBTC is to bitcoin what the dollar was to gold.