Over the past couple of years, the thought of public corporations purchasing cryptocurrency, Bitcoin specifically for their reserves was considered a joke but looking around today, it seems like that joke has finally turned into reality as the whole concept of virtual currencies have finally been embraced by some of the biggest publically traded corporations from all around the globe despite of their highly fragile and volatile nature, with MicroStrategy being the one with most Bitcoins on their balance sheet.
Before moving on further with the topic, it is worth talking about Bitcoin first in order for you to have a much better understanding of what we are going to talk about next.
Everything to know about Bitcoin
Just like any other cryptocurrency in the marketplace, Bitcoin too is a blockchain-based decentralized virtual currency, introduced nearly eleven years ago back in January 2009. As per the word in the industry, Bitcoin is said to be developed by Satoshi Nakamoto, while the real person or persons behind the idea, still remains a mystery. This virtual asset of yours can easily be used for several purposes including buying and selling of goods and services as well as using it for the purpose of trade and exchange over crypto exchanges online.
Not just that, Bitcoin is one such platform that is known to offer its users a lower transaction fee when compared to traditional already existing payment systems online. Also, as mentioned previously, Bitcoin is a decentralized platform which means that it can easily stay outside the jurisdiction of central authorities and operate freely.
Other than this, Bitcoin is extremely secure, all thanks to cryptography and it Is worth mentioning that, all the transactions made on the platform are verified with the help of a process commonly known as “mining”. In addition to this, you should probably be aware of the fact that Bitcoin is one such currency that has been able to witness a surge in growth and popularity over the past couple of years and has been said to be the most popular cryptocurrency to date. As a matter of fact, it has managed to trigger the launch of hundreds of different digital currencies, since it was first introduced.
Furthermore, other than being available on all major cryptocurrency exchanges in the marketplace, it is vital for you to know that Bitcoin is commonly referred to as “BTC”, which is also its native utility token used for the purpose of trading. The overall popularity and growth of Bitcoin have reached a completely different level, also because it was one of the initial currencies launched in the marketplace and that it has managed to make a name for itself over all these years.
Another reason for its popularity and widespread global community might also be its portability, convenience, ease of use, and intuitive nature to name just a few. We have been talking about the currency’s popularity and growth a lot lately, Bitcoin is one such currency that has started to being accepted at places around the globe, for instance, as per a report from a couple of weeks back, a McDonalds in Ell Salvatore has started accepting Bitcoin as an official mode of payment from its customers.
As per a report from CoinMarketCap, as of today, the value of Bitcoin is nearly 54,643.56 US dollars with a twenty-four-hour trading volume of 50,505,165,148 dollars. Not just that, in just the past twenty-four hours, the price of Bitcoin has gone up by 9.12 percent. Also, you should know that, with a market cap of 1,029,294,796,645 US dollars, Bitcoin has placed at 1st position as per the CoinMarketCap rankings. Apart from that, the current circulating supply of the currency is 18,836,525 BTC coins with a maximum lifetime supply of 21,000,000 BTC coins.
Now that you have a basic understanding of Bitcoin, I sincerely believe that you will now be able to have a much better understanding of what we are going to talk about next, public companies with most Bitcoin in their portfolios. To know more, I suggest you read further!
Public corporations holding Bitcoin
As mentioned previously, some companies have deliberately acquired virtual currencies for their corporate treasuries despite being well versed with their highly volatile and uncertain nature. As a matter of fact, institutional investors from all around the world have been increasingly purchasing Bitcoin. Also, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of digital currencies have been bought collectively by various major organizations including Tesla and Square to name a few.
Over the recent years combined with the economic effects caused by the Covid-19 pandemic last year, many large institutions have been indulged in purchasing Bitcoin which all started when last year in August 2020, MicroStrategy, a cloud software company managed to purchase 425 million dollars worth of Bitcoin, while others simply followed.
In simpler words, for some of you who are unwilling to purchase Bitcoin on your own, you will be able to gain exposure to the virtual asset by just buying shares in public companies that already hold Bitcoin. This way, you don’t have the responsibility nor do you have to hassle in order to arrange self-custody. Also, all these companies that we are talking about, considering the idea of holding bitcoin on their balance sheets may have different reasons, altered to them specifically.
For instance, some companies hold Bitcoin for the reason that they remain liquid and also generate a certain specific return, while others focused on inflation as the key reason. For you to understand better, think of it this way that, cash held on balance sheets might lose value over time but holding Bitcoin, for instance, the value will inflate in the near future while also providing companies with a lower rate of interest. Now let’s talk about specifics, shall we?
Microstrategy(MSTR) is nothing but an analytics platform company that is known to recently add more crypto to its balance sheet, making it one of those companies to own the most Bitcoin (BTC-US) as and when compared to other publicly traded firms in the marketplace holding Bitcoin.
According to a report by Bloomberg, MicroStrategy is said to have purchased 3,907 Bitcoins on July 1, since the beginning of its fiscal third quarter and it is worth mention that, as of now, MicroStrategy holds nearly 108,992 Bitcoins which were bought at an average value of 26,796 US dollars each. Not just that, at some point in history, the CEO of the company, Michael Saylor claimed that he used to buy 1000 dollars in Bitcoin every second. Also, in August last year, the company bought its first Bitcoin for nearly 250 million dollars and since then, it has continued acquiring virtual assets.
Next on, we have Tesla, the electric vehicle giant which is known to have invested in Bitcoin earlier this year. The value of Bitcoin increased significantly after the company revealed in an SEC filing on February 8 that Tesla initially invested a 1.5 billion dollar in cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin specifically.
At the beginning of this year, the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk announced that the company sold about ten percent of its Bitcoin holdings. As a matter of fact, the sale managed to generate proceeds of nearly 272 million dollars, while earning a profit of 101 million dollars from that very sale. Also, it is worth mentioning that, as of March 31 this year, Tesla’s 42,902 BTC are worth nearly 1.37 billion dollars.
Furthermore, in late 2020, MicroStrategy’s officials offered Elon Musk to share his “playbook” for investing in Bitcoin, arguing that, this move will do Tesla shareholders a hundred billion dollar favor. Moreover, Galaxy Digital Holdings(BRPHF) is another such firm that has invested in Bitcoin that is also known to have the largest institutional holder with around 16,400 BTC, worth just over 761 million dollars as per the current value.
Lastly, we have Square(SQ), whose founder and Chief Executive officer, Jack Dorsey is said to be a longtime Bitcoin bull. Making Bitcoin the key to a clean energy future, the virtual payment company posted a white paper making the case. As of today, Square owns nearly 8.027 Bitcoin with a value of 386 million dollars. After Tesla’s Bitcoin purchase in October last year, Square invested about fifty million dollars in Bitcoin.
Just like these, there are several such companies that have invested in Bitcoin including Coinbase(COIN), Free Market(SHIP) as well as Marthan Digital(MARA) along with a lot more but for now, It seems like you must have gotten a fair understanding of what we have here.
In Conclusion, you must have realized by now that investing in the most popular cryptocurrency to date, Bitcoin could prove to be a worthy investment and can provide you with a good return in the near future as well, which might also be the reason why such big public corporations are interested in purchasing Bitcoin in the first place.
But again, as mentioned at the very beginning, crypto is a highly volatile marketplace and is extremely uncertain. Thus, It is extremely important for you to understand the fact that just like any other currency in the crypto marketplace, Bitcoin does have its own risks as well and you should invest only if you are willing to take those risks and bear any and all losses if at all necessary.
If you are wondering, where can you buy Bitcoin? Let me help you with that. Currently, Bitcoin as mentioned previously is available on all major crypto exchanges but some of the popular exchanges that have BTC listed on them include Binance, Huobi Global, Mandala Exchange, FTX as well as OKEx to name a few.
What are your thoughts on Bitcoin? Do let us know in the comments below. To know more about various cryptocurrencies, do check out other articles we have on our website. Thank you for your time & if you found our content informative, do share it with your investor friends!
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