MicroStrategy Inc. can't strip out bitcoin's wild swings in value from the unofficial accounting measures it touts to investors, the SEC said.

Bad news for MicroStrategy was compounded as the company's shares fell as much as 20 percent Friday, the biggest intraday collapse since February 23, 2021. Its stock closed at $375.89, down nearly 18 percent. Bitcoin also tumbled, and was down more than 7 percent around 4:15 p.m. in New York.

The enterprise software maker, which said in 2020 that buying and holding bitcoin was one of its key business strategies, used non-GAAP measures in its Form 10-Q for the quarter that ended September 30, 2021, to show investors what its income would have been if it didn't have to impair the volatile cryptocurrency. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) objected, a comment letter released Thursday shows.

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