Bitcoin has seen more institutional adoption this year than any other year as companies explore the value of the token. One company has however led the charge in this growing adoption trend that has seen bitcoin debut on many balance sheets. MicroStrategy has long been accumulating BTC and this year, they significantly ramped up their holdings and remain the dominant corporate investor in the digital asset.
MicroStrategy Leads The Charge
MicroStrategy was shot into the spotlight with its accumulation of BTC since 2019. Mostly doing this in the background before now, the company had, earlier in the year, made its strategy known to the market. It publicized its purchases and revealed that it had long-term plans for the digital asset. This was further helped by its CEO, Michael Saylor, being a vocal bitcoin supporter.
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Other companies had then jumped on the bandwagon and revealed that they too had made bitcoin purchases. This included the likes of Tesla, Square, Aker, and Meitu, who announced bitcoin holdings that went into the thousands. This indicated that there was a higher interest coming from corporate to hold digital assets such as BTC on their balance sheets.
MicroStrategy holds 71.4% of all corporate BTC | Source: Arcane Research
However, this trend would prove to be short-lived as announcements regarding BTC purchases had died down not long after. Only MicroStrategy continued to purchase and publicize its holdings in the digital asset. It has consistently added more bitcoin to its treasuries. Its last purchase saw the company add 1,434 BTC to its already impressive holdings, bringing its total 122,478 BTC.
How Bitcoin Has Held Up In Corporate
The first half of the year actually came with a lot of good news for the asset. Besides MicroStrategy announcing that it was stocking up on bitcoin, leading other companies to do so, Tesla had announced that it would begin accepting the digital asset as a method of payment for its highly coveted and popular electric vehicles. This had sent the market into a frenzy as the price of the asset soared.
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However, not long after this announcement, the company had announced that it would be repealing the BTC payments feature. It cited environmental concerns related to the mining activities of the cryptocurrencies but it did not sell off any of the BTC on its balance sheet.
ESG concerns have been a major deterrent for companies who are looking to enter the space. The automaker’s CEO, Elon Musk, had then said that it would begin accepting the cryptocurrency once bitcoin hit 50% renewable mining energy.
BTC crashes to $46K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Nevertheless, MicroStrategy has not stopped investing in the asset. It remains the public company with the highest BTC holdings in the globe, with its holdings sitting above $6.2 billion. Its bitcoin treasuries now account for 71.4% of BTC held by public listed companies.
Featured image from Medium, charts from Arcane Research and TradingView.com