Hong Kong investment firm’s board gives nod to more Bitcoin buying

HK Asia Holdings Limited has increased its Bitcoin holdings to nearly 9 BTC, just a week after the investment firm saw its share prices double after buying its first Bitcoin.

HK Asia, a Hong Kong-based investment firm, said in a Feb. 23 announcement that its board “has approved the Company to further increase its investment in Bitcoin” and shared that on Feb. 20, it purchased around 7.88 Bitcoin BTC $95,422 for a total cost of around $761,705.

It added that its latest Bitcoin buy was financed through internal resources and brought its total Bitcoin holdings to around 8.88 BTC, which it bought at an average cost of $97,021 per coin — around $861,500 in total.

On Feb. 16, HK Asia shared it purchased 1 BTC, which was enough for investors to pile into its stock the next day when markets reopened to boost its share price by nearly 93% by the close of trading on Feb. 17.

Shares in HK Asia were up by around 5.7% on Feb. 24 as of the lunch break on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and were trading at around 6.66 Hong Kong dollars (86 cents), according to Google Finance.

HK Asia shares started Feb. 24 trading around 7 Hong Kong dollars (90 cents), up over 11% from its Friday, Feb. 21 close. Source: Google Finance 

If its current price holds, HK Asia’s stock could be set to close above its June 2019 all-time high of 6.50 Hong Kong dollars (84 cents), with its share price already up 1,700% so far this year.

HK Asia’s Bitcoin foray follows a recent trend of publicly traded firms buying the cryptocurrency with the aim of boosting company earnings.

In its announcement earlier this month, HK Asia said its board had seen the “increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies in the commercial world” as part of the reason for its initial BTC purchase.

The company said in its latest note that its Bitcoin buys are below the threshold for it to legally have to share its bought the cryptocurrency but made the announcement “on a voluntary basis.”

Bitcoin has traded flat over the past 24 hours and is currently down less than 1% to $95,537. It has traded below the psychologically important $100,000 level since Feb. 5 and is down 12% from its Jan. 20 peak of $108,786, according to CoinGecko.