With help from bitcointreasuries.org we have taken a look at the institutional landscape in this regard.
Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy is a software and cloud services company, but in August 2020 it made its first purchase of bitcoin for its treasury.
However, Tesla has since backtracked on those plans, citing worries about the energy footprint of the bitcoin mining process.
As a central player in the cryptoverse, it is not too surprising that the company should hold substantial amounts of BTC on its balance sheet.
At the recent Bitcoin 2022 conference attended by 25,000 crypto enthusiasts, the former hedge fund manager said he sees bitcoin going to the moon after the Fed pauses on its tightening.
As a good investment manager, Novogratz doesn’t let his bullishness on bitcoin cloud his judgment.
The other top public company holders are mostly miners, such as Marathon, Riot, Hut 8 and Core Scientific or exchanges such as Voyager and Coinbase or payments companies like Square.
So what does the future hold for bitcoin as a treasury asset? To be frank, there are not going to be that many chief financial officers or audit committees that are going to be recommending bitcoin adoption right now.
However, even though its attractiveness as an asset to hold during an inflationary period are not being borne out in the immediate near term, its advocates see that changing if inflation proves stickier than central banks initially envisaged.
It joins a number of high profile hedge funds – such as Brevan Howard Master Fund and Tudor Investment – in seeking exposure to bitcoin, not to mention dozens of crypto hedge funds.
In total, public and private companies, ETPs and governments hold 7.37% of the 21 million bitcoins that will ever come into existence.
Gary is the editor of business2community.com.