In a newly launched memo dated January 13, 2025, Matt Hougan, Chief Funding Officer (CIO) at Bitwise, argues that the phenomenon of companies buying Bitcoin for his or her treasuries is way extra widespread and influential than most buyers understand. In line with Hougan, “We’ll see a whole bunch of corporations purchase Bitcoin for his or her treasuries over the following 12-18 months, and their purchases will elevate your complete Bitcoin market considerably larger.”
Hougan’s memo, titled “Firms Shopping for Bitcoin: An Missed Megatrend,” asserts that whereas MicroStrategy and its outspoken founder, Michael Saylor, usually dominate headlines, they’re merely probably the most seen a part of a quickly increasing company motion into BTC.
Regardless of being ranked 220th globally by market capitalization—“a bit greater than Chipotle and a bit smaller than Sherwin-Williams,” in keeping with Hougan—MicroStrategy’s BTC acquisitions considerably exceed your complete new provide of Bitcoin mined final yr.
“Final yr, MicroStrategy purchased ~257,000 BTC… greater than all of the Bitcoin mined in 2024 (218,829 BTC),” Hougan wrote. He additionally famous that MicroStrategy has introduced plans to boost over $42 billion to buy extra Bitcoin—roughly equal to “about 2.6 years’ price of latest provide” at present manufacturing charges.
Hougan poses a direct query concerning what may occur if “actually massive corporations begin to take a web page from MicroStrategy’s e-book,” pointing particularly to Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, which he described as “20x the scale of MicroStrategy.”
Whereas MicroStrategy’s strikes have garnered probably the most consideration, Hougan emphasizes that many different corporations are already together with BTC on their stability sheets. In complete, “70 publicly traded corporations personal Bitcoin on their stability sheets,” a determine that encompasses each crypto-centric corporations corresponding to Coinbase and Marathon Digital, and mainstream gamers like Block, Tesla, Semler Scientific, and Mercado Libre.
Collectively—excluding MicroStrategy—these corporations maintain 141,302 BTC. Personal corporations additionally maintain vital quantities of bitcoin. Hougan cites information from BitcoinTreasuries.com exhibiting that personal corporations like SpaceX and Block.one collectively personal at the least 368,043 BTC. “That’s vital. It implies that, even at this time, MicroStrategy is lower than 50% of the company BTC market,” he wrote, predicting that MicroStrategy’s share “will likely be a small fraction of it will definitely.”
Why Bitcoin Company Adoption Is Set To Explode
Hougan factors to 2 fundamental elements which have traditionally constrained company adoption—reputational threat and unfavorable accounting guidelines—and explains why each have shifted quickly.
“Final yr, the CEO of 1 massive publicly traded firm confronted large hurdles in including Bitcoin as a treasury asset,” he wrote, describing the persistent concern of unfavourable media protection, shareholder lawsuits, and regulatory consideration. “However reputational dangers have peeled again considerably previously few months. Publish-election, with Washington embracing crypto on the highest ranges, it’s turning into far more commonplace—and fashionable—to personal Bitcoin.”
Hougan then highlights a brand new accounting guideline launched by the Monetary Accounting Requirements Board (FASB) known as ASU 2023-08. Beforehand, BTC was categorised as an “intangible asset” topic to impairment testing, forcing corporations to put in writing down the worth of their Bitcoin if its value fell—however by no means permitting them to mark the worth again up if it rose. Now, corporations can mark BTC to market and e-book a revenue when its value appreciates.
“If 70 corporations had been keen so as to add Bitcoin to their stability sheets when, from an accounting perspective, it actually might solely go down, think about what number of will add it… now,” Hougan wrote. “2 hundred? 5 hundred? A thousand?”
Addressing skepticism as to why corporations select to carry BTC, Hougan contends that company motivations largely mirror these of particular person buyers. “Some corporations are grasping… Others are frightened concerning the debasement of the greenback… Nonetheless others need to sign that they’re a part of the Bitcoin tribe… Some most likely simply have a hunch,” he wrote.
In the end, nevertheless, Hougan maintains that understanding every firm’s motivations is much less vital than observing the magnitude of general demand. “You simply want to have a look at the numbers and ask your self two questions: The place does all of this demand from corporations appear like it’s going? And what would that imply for the market?”
Hougan’s memo concludes on a bullish notice, forecasting that if main companies observe the trail paved by MicroStrategy—now aided by extra favorable reputational and accounting climates—the inflow of company capital might considerably push BTC’s value larger over the course of the approaching yr.
“My prediction: We’ll see a whole bunch of corporations purchase Bitcoin for his or her treasuries over the following 12-18 months.” – Matt Hougan, Bitwise CIO
At press time, BTC traded at $95,039.
Featured picture from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com