Thanks to Trump, Corporate America can’t avoid Bitcoin now

Self-proclaimed ‘crypto president’ Donald Trump is forcing corporate America to face the Bitcoin question, whether companies are ready or not. Last week, David Sacks, Trump’s newly appointed White House crypto and AI czar, stood before reporters at his first press conference straight from the Oval and laid out Washington’s new crypto agenda.

In an interview with CNBC, Sacks confirmed that the administration is actively evaluating the feasibility of a national strategic Bitcoin reserve, which is a really big deal. So we couldn’t help but wonder: Will corporate America finally actually put BTC on its balance sheets?

Nearly eighty public companies already hold Bitcoin

BTC is already sitting in corporate treasuries, but only in certain industries. Bitcointreasuries.net reports that 79 publicly traded companies hold BTC, mainly companies tied to crypto or blockchain technology.

The largest holder is, of course, Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy. Co-founder Michael Saylor has turned the company into BTC’s corporate poster child. On its Q3 earnings call that was released last week, Strategy confirmed it holds 471,107 BTC, roughly 2% of BTC’s total supply and worth about $45.2 billion at today’s prices.

Saylor is also campaigning to get other companies on board. At Microsoft’s annual shareholder meeting in 2024, Saylor famously made a proposal calling on the company’s board to consider holding BTC in its corporate treasury.

The proposal failed—hard. Only 0.55% of shareholders voted in favor. Microsoft’s board, along with Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), opposed it vehemently. Then interestingly, Microsoft’s October proxy filing revealed that its treasury team had already evaluated Bitcoin and decided against it.

CFO Amy Hood doubled down at the meeting with Saylor. “Our goal is to preserve capital, maintain liquidity, and generate income,” she said.

But Saylor has since said that wasn’t gonna stop him from trying whenever he can, with whatever public company he can. US corporate cash reserves are massive. The S&P 500 holds $3.5 trillion in cash, and if just 30% of that could move into Bitcoin, imagine the possibilities.

Crypto fintech company MoonPay has also revealed that it holds BTC equal to 5% of its operational cash. “We’re only going to succeed if Bitcoin succeeds,” CEO Ivan Soto-Wright said. “It’s detached from interest rates and equity markets… incredibly efficient for large money movement… you could argue it’s a better version of gold.”

Tesla’s Bitcoin bet adds $600 million to its balance sheet

Tesla is one of the few non-crypto companies that actually holds Bitcoin. And in Q4 2024, it paid off.

Thanks to BTC’s rising price, Tesla reported a $600 million gain from its holdings. The company had originally bought Bitcoin in 2021, but market volatility and Bitcoin’s environmental dangers made it a controversial decision.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) changed the rules in 2024, requiring corporate crypto holdings to be marked to market each quarter. This means that companies no longer have to report only impairments—they can now recognize Bitcoin gains. The change could encourage more companies to follow Tesla’s lead.

Regulation has been one of the biggest barriers to corporate BTC adoption. But the Trump administration is already rewriting the rulebook.

In January, the SEC rescinded SAB 121, a rule that forced banks to classify crypto as a liability. The change could bring banks deeper into crypto custody services.

Speaking at Davos, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said that the company could revisit BTC ownership. “At the moment, from a regulatory perspective, we can’t own Bitcoin,” he said. “But if the rules change, we’ll revisit it.”

CEOs from Morgan Stanley and Bank of America—Ted Pick and Brian Moynihan—both reportedly told CNBC that their institutions are monitoring the regulatory shifts closely. If Wall Street banks make their move, corporations will have fewer excuses to stay out of BTC. Perhaps we’ll see Warren Buffet finally take the jump, who knows?

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