The wildest in history? MSTR leads the Bitcoin frenzy on U.S. stocks

By Jiang Zihan, Wall Street Insights

Amid "BITSANITY," MicroStrategy (MSTR), the leading Bitcoin company, is heating up too.

On Thursday, November 21, MSTR's trading volume surpassed the combined total of all U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, dominating much of the U.S. stock market’s activity that day. The stock surged as much as 14.6% intraday, hitting a record high before plunging over 25% from its peak of $536.70 per share, closing at $397.28 per share.

That same day, Bitcoin rose 5% to a new all-time high of $98,311; the total trading volume of the "Bitcoin industrial complex"—including U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, MSTR, Coinbase, and related stocks—reached a record $70 billion, far exceeding the previous day's $55 billion record; and assets under management in U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs crossed the $100 billion threshold.

On November 24, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas posted on X:

"Even at the peak of GameStop Mania—the frenzy around GameStop shares in early 2021—trading volume never came close to MSTR’s weekly volume of $136 billion last week! Amazon has never seen a week like this for MSTR!"

As of Friday’s market close, MSTR closed at $421.88 per share. Year-to-date, MSTR’s stock price has surged over 500%.

From an ETF perspective, the "Bitcoin mania" is even more evident.

On November 21, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs surpassed $100 billion in assets under management. According to Farside Investors, since the U.S. securities regulator approved spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 11 this year, cumulative inflows have reached $29.3 billion.

Among them, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) stands out as the top performer across all Bitcoin products, attracting $30.2 billion in inflows. Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF follow in second and third place with $11.2 billion and $2.7 billion in inflows respectively.

Balchunas pointed out that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have already reached 82% of the size of gold ETFs—despite gold ETFs having traded in the U.S. since November 2004, nearly two decades before Bitcoin ETFs.

Balchunas summed up this astonishing data with one phrase:

"BITCOIN MANIA!"