Public companies increasingly adopt Bitcoin as a treasury asset, with institutional investors gaining regulated access through spot ETFs, marking a shift from retail to corporate ownership.
The adoption of Bitcoin BTC $69 584 24h volatility: 3.9% Market cap: $1.39 T Vol. 24h: $39.81 B has significantly shifted from retail traders to institutional investors in the past year. The implementation of positive crypto regulatory frameworks has increased confidence in the digital asset industry. Furthermore, more institutional investors have more regulated avenues to participate in the cryptocurrency industry, including the spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States.
As a result, BTC has grown to a $2 trillion digital asset, with experts projecting an exponential expansion to overtake Gold as a global store of value. The fact that BTC has a finite supply and intrinsic value has helped it become more attractive to even nation-states led by El Salvador.
Bitcoin Adoption by Public Companies
As Coinspeaker has previously reported, the adoption of Bitcoin by publicly traded companies has been catalyzed by MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR). Currently holding about 447,470 Bitcoins, worth over $42 billion, MicroStrategy’s shareholders have significantly benefited from the BTC strategy.
Moreover, the MSTR stock market has rallied over 20x since the adoption of the Bitcoin strategy several years ago. Several BTC mining companies that are publicly traded – led by Marathon Digital Holdings, Riot Platforms, and Hut 8 Mining Corp – have all adopted a BTC strategy in their respective balance sheet to hedge against inflation.
Elon Musk-backed companies led by Tesla Inc and SpaceX hold Bitcoin in their balance sheet. As of this writing, Tesla Inc. held about 9,720 Bitcoins, worth about $914 million.
The crypto-related companies invested in BTC include Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN), with a total of 9,480 BTCs, worth about $891 million. Others include Galaxy Digital Holdings with about 3,150 BTCs, Bitcoin Group SE with a balance of about 3,589 BTC, and Block Inc with a balance of about 8,363.
According to Naresh Agarwal, an associate director at the Association of Corporate Treasurers, it seems inconceivable that board members of publicly traded companies would justify investments in digital assets, given their fiduciary duty to protect funds from high-risk investments.
Why Now?
Bitcoin has grown to a valuation of over $2 trillion bolstered by the higher demand from the US spot BTC ETF issuers. Furthermore, spot Bitcoin ETFs and other investment funds have accumulated around 1,289,480 BTCs, worth more than $121 billion.
With around 2 million Bitcoins remaining on centralized exchanges for sale and about 2 million to be mined, publicly traded companies are keen to accumulate as many coins as possible. Consequently, more publicly traded companies have opted to dilute their shares more to raise funds and purchase more Bitcoins.
The expected approval of strategic Bitcoin reserves by the United States and several states in the near term has increased the demand for BTC by institutional investors.
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