MicroStrategy has raised almost $20bn from investors this year to buy bitcoin, fuelling a meteoric rise for the once-obscure software company into the Nasdaq 100 index of large-cap US technology stocks.

A combination of selling shares and convertible bonds has funded a one-way bet on a rocketing bitcoin price that, despite a sell-off in recent days, has driven its shares up more than 400 per cent this year. Such is the investor demand that the company now has a market value of around $80bn, despite owning around $41bn of bitcoin.

Debt fund managers have been clamouring to get their hands on the convertible bonds, believing they offer exposure to the soaring share price while also providing protection if the price goes into reverse. The stock’s Nasdaq 100 inclusion will compel index-tracking funds to buy billions of dollars more of the company’s shares.