Cryptocurrencies have gone from mistrust to a big bet in public companies. In this year, bitcoin is an important part of the portfolio of many public trade companies. Which companies are heavily investing in cryptocurrency?\
Bitcoin wasn’t a popular option for public trade companies. Almost one year ago, no company was trusting it. It started to grow with the investments of MicroStrategy, led by Michael Saylor, who today leads the list of publicly traded companies that have the most bitcoin on their balance sheet. A pioneer in investing in cryptocurrencies, the software company has 114,042 bitcoins.
Second place goes to Tesla, which in February bought the equivalent of 1.5 billion dollars in cryptocurrency. After some sales and a huge rise in the asset’s price, the electric car maker led by Elon Musk adds 42,902 bitcoins, equivalent to 2.8 billion dollars, or almost double the amount initially invested.
The list of companies whose shares are traded on the stock exchange and which have bitcoin on their balance sheets includes the broker Coinbase, the manager Galaxy Digital, and MercadoLibre, among several others. Fintech Square, which is run by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, initially bought 4,709 bitcoins for $50 million. Then I increased its exposure to 8,027 bitcoins, now valued at over $520 million.
Initially considered a controversial move, the purchase of bitcoin by large companies has become increasingly common, and the profit made by Tesla and Square and the appreciation of MicroStrategy, whose shares jumped from 150 to more than 850 dollars, show that the decision, at least for the time being, was right.
Despite the flashy numbers, the total bitcoins held by publicly traded companies are still small when compared to other asset classes common in companies’ balance sheets and even concerning the total bitcoins in circulation. Today, there is about 18.8 million bitcoin in circulation, out of the maximum total of 21 million that could exist – that is, about 1.3% is held by companies listed on the stock exchange.
Funds and ETFs have even greater participation
It’s not just listed companies that have shown interest in bitcoin. Banks, managers, and brokers have also created a series of products with cryptocurrency, such as funds and ETFs, which accumulate a much more significant amount of digital assets.
Only Grayscale, with its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) fund, which intends to transform itself into an ETF, sums 654,600 bitcoins – it is the largest bitcoin custodian in the world. Block. One adds another 140,000 bitcoins.
In Brazil, crypto active funds and ETFs also accumulate large amounts of cryptocurrency. QR Asset Management, for example, has 1,218 bitcoins, added to the exposures of its funds and ETF QBTC11, which is equivalent to almost 450 million reais. Hashdex, which recently passed the $1 billion mark in assets under its management, has more than 4,841 bitcoin in HASH11 alone, an ETF that invests 65% of its portfolio in bitcoin and the rest in other cryptocurrencies and is the second-largest among all the ETFs listed on B3 – in addition to him, the manager also has an ETF and bitcoin funds, which considerably increases the number of cryptocurrencies in its possession.
The numbers show that investor interest in the crypto market continues to grow, with very significant numbers, including institutional players. This, of course, is also reflected in the price of the cryptocurrency.
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