Bitcoin Treasurys Usher in Corporate Crypto Era

Dear Subscriber,

Once considered a fringe hedge or a speculative moonshot, Bitcoin (BTC, “A-”) has now earned a formal seat at the corporate treasury table.

In fact, over 124 publicly traded companies now hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets. Collectively, they hold more than 809,000 BTC.

That’s nearly 4% of the total circulating supply!

This isn’t just about HODLing anymore. Bitcoin has become a strategic asset, a liquidity tool and, in some cases, a way to access capital without selling.

Let’s unpack how we got here … and what this means for markets in the future.

Who’s Buying … And Why?

The first and most important question is … why?

Why are established institutions adopting Bitcoin as a treasury asset?

The reasons vary from company to company. But a few themes dominate, including …

You can see these reasons in the companies with the largest BTC holdings.

Starting with the largest.

No company has done more to shape the corporate Bitcoin narrative than MicroStrategy (MSTR). Or as it now calls itself, simply Strategy.

In 2020, CEO Michael Saylor shocked traditional finance by announcing that MicroStrategy would convert most of its corporate treasury into Bitcoin.

Five years later, it has gone all in:

Strategy’s model is aggressive: The company has used convertible notes, stock sales and direct cash to acquire BTC.

It turned its equity into a de facto Bitcoin fund with a business on the side.

Bitcoin mining firms are the second-largest holders of BTC.

Since they generate Bitcoin natively through block rewards, many retain a portion of their treasury in BTC rather than converting to fiat.

Here are the top miners based on holdings:

In an interesting twist, Riot recently used its Bitcoin as collateral to access a $100 million credit facility from Coinbase.

This is a clear sign that Bitcoin is gaining institutional financial utility, not just speculative appeal.

Finally, as accounting treatment improved and regulatory clarity continues to grow, tech and fintech giants have followed MicroStrategy’s lead.

The top four companies by holdings are …

Tesla stands out after reporting a $600 million profit boost in Q4 2024. That’s thanks to an updated accounting rule.

In 2025, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) updated its rules to require companies to mark Bitcoin holdings to market rather than applying impairment charges.

The result? Companies like Tesla and Coinbase now get to reflect full unrealized gains.

Meanwhile, Block is now earning a 9.7% annualized yield by running a node on the Lightning Network.

In plain English, it’s monetizing its BTC holdings without selling them.

Meanwhile, Japanese investment and hospitality firm Metaplanet recently overtook Coinbase — the largest centralized exchange in the U.S. — to become the ninth-largest corporate BTC holder.

Its goal is to accumulate 21,000 BTC by 2026.

This growing participation from public tech and fintech firms is part of a broader institutional wave.

At the time of writing, over 3.44 million BTC are now held across public and private entities, ETFs, custodians, governments and DeFi protocols.

Bitcoin in Treasurys & Entity Growth

The Corporate BTC Era Has Begun

Bitcoin treasury strategies are no longer theoretical.

They’re here, they’re active and they’re reshaping both how companies manage cash and how investors evaluate them.

But Bitcoin is just the beginning.

The real shift will come as companies diversify into Ethereum, Solana, XRP and DeFi-native assets.

In doing so, they’ll build multichain treasuries designed to hedge risk, earn yield and plug directly into blockchain ecosystems.

I’ll dive deeper into that stage of the Corporate Crypto Era next week. And I’ll break down which companies are quietly becoming digital asset powerhouses behind the scenes.

So, stay tuned!

Best,

Mark Gough