Hundreds Of Companies Will Buy Bitcoin: Fund CIO

Hundreds Of Companies Will Buy Bitcoin: Fund CIO

In a recent note dated January 13, 2025, Matt Hogan, chief investment officer (CIO) at Bitwise, said the phenomenon of companies buying Bitcoin for their Treasuries is far more widespread and influential than most investors realize. According to Hogan, “We will see hundreds of companies buying Bitcoin for their Treasuries over the next 12 to 18 months, and their purchases will lift the entire Bitcoin market significantly higher.”

Hogan notetitled “Companies Buying Bitcoin: A Big Overlooked Trend,” asserts that while MicroStrategy and its outspoken founder, Michael Saylor, often dominate the headlines, they are just the most visible part of a rapidly expanding corporate movement toward Bitcoin.

Despite being ranked 220th globally by market capitalization — “a little bit bigger than Chipotle and a little bit smaller than Sherwin-Williams,” according to Hogan — MicroStrategy’s BTC holdings significantly exceed the entire new supply of Bitcoin mined in the past year.

“Last year, MicroStrategy purchased approximately 257,000 bitcoins…more than all the bitcoins mined in 2024 (218,829 bitcoins),” Hogan wrote. He also noted that MicroStrategy has announced plans to raise more than $42 billion to buy more bitcoin — roughly equivalent to “about 2.6 years of new supply” at current production rates.

Hogan asks a direct question about what might happen if “major companies start taking a page out of MicroStrategy’s book,” specifically pointing to Mark Zuckerberg’s meta, which he described as “20 times the size of MicroStrategy.”

While MicroStrategy’s moves have received the most attention, Hogan confirms that many other companies have already included BTC on their balance sheets. In total, 70 publicly traded companies have Bitcoin on their balance sheets, a number that includes both cryptocurrency-focused companies like Coinbase and Marathon Digital, and major players like Block, Tesla, Semler Scientific, and Mercado Libre.

Together, these companies – excluding MicroStrategy – own 141,302 Bitcoin. Private companies also own large amounts of Bitcoin. Hogan cites data from BitcoinTreasuries.com showing that private companies like SpaceX and Block.one collectively own at least 368,043 bitcoins. “This is significant. This means that as of today, MicroStrategy represents less than 50% of the corporate BTC market,” he wrote, predicting that MicroStrategy’s share “will ultimately be a small portion of it.”

Why Bitcoin adoption is set to explode

Hogan points to two key factors that have historically hampered corporate adoption – reputational risk and unfavorable accounting rules – and explains why they are shifting so quickly.

“Last year, the CEO of a major publicly traded company faced enormous hurdles in adding Bitcoin as a treasury asset,” he wrote, describing persistent fear of negative media coverage, shareholder lawsuits, and regulatory attention. “But reputational risks have declined significantly in the past few months. After the election, and with Washington embracing cryptocurrencies at the highest levels, owning Bitcoin has become more common and popular.

Hogan then highlights new accounting guidelines introduced by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) called ASU 2023-08. Previously, Bitcoin was classified as an “intangible asset” subject to impairment testing, forcing companies to write down the value of their Bitcoin if its price fell — but never allowing them to raise the value again if it rose. Now, companies can mark BTC to market and book profits when its price rises.

“If 70 companies are willing to add Bitcoin to their balance sheets, when from an accounting perspective, they can only go down, imagine how many companies would add… right now,” Hogan wrote. “Two hundred? Five hundred? A thousand?”

Addressing doubts about why companies choose to hold Bitcoin, Hogan emphasized that corporate motivations largely mirror those of individual investors. “Some companies are greedy… others are worried about the dollar falling in value… still others want to signal they are part of the Bitcoin tribe… some may just have a hunch,” he wrote.

However, in the end, Hogan stresses that understanding each company’s motivations is less important than noting the size of overall demand. “All you have to do is look at the numbers and ask yourself a couple of questions: Where does all this business demand seem to be going? And what does it mean for the market?”

Hogan’s note ends on a bullish note, predicting that if major companies follow the path paved by MicroStrategy — now supported by a more favorable reputational and accounting climate — an influx of corporate capital could push the price of BTC higher over the next year.

“My prediction: We will see hundreds of companies buying Bitcoin for their Treasuries over the next 12 to 18 months.” – Matt Hogan, Head of IT at Bitwise

At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $95,039.

BTC bounces back to $95,000, 1-week chart | source: BTCUSDT on TradingView.com

Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com

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