As we’re seeing Bitcoin becoming a more dependable asset, 2021 is seeing a slew of public companies that are aiming to hold BTC on their balance sheets. Of course, this trend isn’t new, and we’re certain that it’ll grow bigger from here. Be it Elon Musk’s Tesla or Jack Dorsey’s Square, a lot of public companies have caught the Bitcoin bug. So, if you are wondering which companies own the highest number of Bitcoin, then you’ve come to the right place.
Read: Top 5 CEO’s who have endorsed Bitcoin
MicroStrategy
MicroStrategy – a company that has nothing to do with Bitcoin as such – has emerged as the biggest hodler of Bitcoins. The company burst into the scene in August 2020 when its co-founder and CEO Michael Saylor announced that it’ll be acquiring BTC worth $250million. Since then, MicroStrategy has continued to accumulate more amounts of the world’s largest cryptocurrency. It’s interesting to note that MicroStrategy provides a business intelligence software, so the reason it’s getting more Bitcoins on its balance sheet is due to the declining value of cash and Saylor’s sheer conviction about BTC as an asset. Most recently, MicroStrategy took a $1billion debt to get more Bitcoins.
Currently, the company has more than 90,000 Bitcoins on its balance sheet, which is 0.43% of the total BTC in supply.
Tesla
Elon Musk needs no introduction. As a technologist who runs two big companies – Tesla and Space X (among many others like The Boring Company), he’s known to be a person living in the future. So, it didn’t really come as a surprise when Tesla announced in its quarterly result that it has $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoins on its balance sheet. Even on Twitter, Musk has been promoting (or trolling?) about cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin and Dogecoin, so it’s evident that Tesla might continue to invest more in BTC. In fact, the world’s biggest EV company also mentioned that it’ll start accepting the cryptocurrency for selling electric vehicles.
Galaxy Digital
Describing itself as “the bridge between the crypto and institutional worlds“, Galaxy Digital is an investment management firm for digital assets. While the company manages other people’s money, it has also invested its own in Bitcoin. Galaxy Digital is publicly traded in Toronto and has been co-founded by Mike Novogratz, who’s known for his stint at Fortress Investments. He has been a prolific supporter of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
The firm currently has over 16,000 BTC, which is about 0.078% of total BTC supply.
Square
Square is yet another company that has been bullish on cryptocurrencies. Its Cash app has made it immensely easy for users to acquire Bitcoins, so much so that it allowed 3 million customers to buy or sell Bitcoin in 2020 itself. In October 2020, the public company also announced that it has bought $50million worth of Bitcoins. Then in Feb this year, Square noted in its quarterly report that it has got an additional $170 million worth of BTC. Of course, it’s not surprising considering Jack Dorsey is at the helm of Square and he has been bullish on cryptocurrencies for a while now. His other company, Twitter is also working on a decentralized version of the social network, dubbed Blue Sky.
In total, Square has over 8,000 BTC.
Marathon Patent Group
You may not have heard of Marathon (publicly traded as MARA), but it’s one of the biggest companies in the bitcoin mining space in the US. In Jan this year, it announced that it has purchased $150 million worth of Bitcoin. The amount netted it more than 4,800 BTC. Its chairman and CEO Merrick Okamoto highlighted that the company believes that holding Bitcoin is a better long-term strategy than holding USD.
Of course, this isn’t a comprehensive list, and some of the other companies that hold BTC include Riot Blockchain, Argo Blockchain, and more. As we’re seeing more people being more vocal about BTC being a better asset than cash, it’s only a matter of time before other larger corporations start opting for this strategy.