Author: Daniel Phillips and Stephen Gr; Translation: Blockchain Plain Language
For years, the idea of publicly traded companies buying Bitcoin as a reserve asset was seen as laughable. This top cryptocurrency was considered too volatile, too niche, and not something any serious corporation would accept.
However, this taboo has been completely shattered, with many significant institutional investors buying Bitcoin in recent years.
When cloud software company MicroStrategy purchased $425 million worth of Bitcoin in August and September 2020, the floodgates opened. Other companies followed suit, including payment processing company Block and electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla.
According to Bitcoin Treasuries data, publicly traded companies holding Bitcoin now account for nearly 1.5% of the total 21 million Bitcoins in circulation.
1. MicroStrategy
MicroStrategy, a well-known business analytics platform, has made Bitcoin its primary reserve asset.
The company, which produces mobile software and cloud-based services, actively pursued the purchase of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency. As of May 2025, the company holds 214,400 Bitcoins, equivalent to $14.8 billion, exceeding 1% of the total Bitcoin supply.
MicroStrategy’s CEO, Michael Saylor, once stated that he was buying $1,000 worth of Bitcoin every second. During the company’s Q1 2024 earnings call, Saylor claimed that the company’s “Bitcoin strategy” had increased its performance in the business intelligence space by 10 to 30 times compared to its competitors in enterprise software companies.
Unlike other CEOs who typically avoid discussing personal investments, Saylor openly disclosed that he personally holds 17,732 Bitcoins, currently valued at over $1.2 billion. This shift in attitude for the CEO of MicroStrategy can be seen as significant, as back in 2013, he had claimed that Bitcoin’s days were numbered.
Saylor stated during the Q1 2024 earnings call: “We are in the early stages of institutions rapidly adopting Bitcoin as a digital asset.” He added, “In the future, Bitcoin will not compete with other crypto-assets, but rather compete with gold, art, stocks, real estate, bonds, and other forms of store of value in terms of wealth creation, wealth preservation, and capital markets.”
2. Marathon Digital Holdings Inc.
Unsurprisingly, Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital is also a significant holder of Bitcoin, with 176,310 Bitcoins in its corporate reserves (valued at approximately $12.3 billion as of May 2024). The company aims to become “one of the largest Bitcoin mining operators in North America, operating at the lowest energy costs.” Before transitioning to crypto mining, the company was originally a patent-holding company (often referred to as a “patent troll”).
As of May 2024, Marathon Digital operates around 240,000 Bitcoin mining machines, capable of generating 29.9 EH/s of hash power, with an average operational hash rate of 21.1 EH/s.
The company noted that after the Bitcoin halving in 2024, it accelerated its growth plans to “mitigate impact” and expressed its hope to double its mining operations by the end of 2024.
However, the company failed to meet its revenue targets in Q1 2024, citing reasons such as “unexpected equipment failures, power line maintenance, and weather-related restrictions higher than expected at the Garden City and other locations.”
3. Tesla
Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla joined the ranks of companies holding Bitcoin in December 2020, investing a total of $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, according to an SEC filing.
In Q1 2021, Tesla sold 10% of its Bitcoin holdings; CEO Elon Musk stated that this was to demonstrate Bitcoin’s liquidity as an alternative to holding cash.
Following Musk’s tweets about Bitcoin, speculation about Tesla’s Bitcoin investment had been ongoing for months. By the end of 2020, MicroStrategy’s Saylor expressed willingness to share his “strategy” in Bitcoin investments with Musk and claimed that Tesla entering the Bitcoin space would bring “benefits of $100 billion to Tesla shareholders.”
However, Musk and Tesla have had a volatile relationship with Bitcoin. Just two months after announcing that Tesla would accept Bitcoin as payment for its products and services in March 2021, Musk suddenly declared that the company would no longer accept Bitcoin as a form of payment.
Musk mentioned the rapid increase in the use of fossil fuels in Bitcoin mining and transactions, leading Tesla to announce that it would not sell any of its Bitcoin holdings and would consider using them for transactions once mining shifts to more sustainable energy sources. He later clarified that once miners use 50% clean energy, the company would resume using Bitcoin for transactions.
In July 2022, Tesla revealed in its Q2 2022 earnings update that the company had sold around “about 75%” of its Bitcoin holdings, with total digital asset sales amounting to $936 million on its balance sheet. During a call with analysts, Musk stated that the company did so to strengthen its cash position in response to uncertainties from COVID lockdown measures. At the time, he also added that the company “would be willing to increase our Bitcoin holdings in the future, so this should not be seen as some sort of judgment on Bitcoin.”
According to data from bitcointreasuries.org, as of May 2024, Tesla holds 97,200 Bitcoins in its investment portfolio (approximately $6.77 billion at current prices). The company has maintained its Bitcoin position, with its Q1 2024 balance sheet showing an estimated value of $184 million as of Q3 2023 and Q1 2024.
Musk has also become an avid supporter of Dogecoin, with Tesla allowing the use of Dogecoin to purchase some goods.
4. Hut 8 Mining Corp
Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 holds 9,109 Bitcoins, valued at around $644 million at current prices.
The company went public on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in June 2021, under the ticker symbol HUT. Its SEC filing stated that the company aims to increase shareholder value by increasing its Bitcoin holdings and value.
The company also explained that through revenue account arrangements established with leading digital asset prime brokerage firms, it utilizes its self-mined and held Bitcoin reserves to generate fiat currency revenue.
In November 2023, the company merged with another Bitcoin mining company, US Bitcoin, forming a company that claims to be an “energy infrastructure company focused on Bitcoin mining and data centers.” These mining centers are located at six locations in Alberta, Texas, and New York, reportedly reaching a self-mining capacity of 7.5 EH/s.
In its Q1 2024 performance report, the company reported revenue of $51.7 million for the quarter, a 231% year-over-year increase.
5. Riot Platforms, Inc.
Another American cryptocurrency mining company, Riot Blockchain, holds 9,084 Bitcoins, valued at $643 million at today’s prices.
The company’s valuation rose from less than $200 million in 2020 to over $6 billion in 2021, with active expansion efforts. In April 2021, the company spent $650 million to acquire a one-gigawatt Bitcoin mining facility in Rockdale, Texas; the company described this purchase as a “transformative event,” making it the “largest publicly-traded Bitcoin mining and hosting company in North America measured by total developed capacity.”
In April 2022, Riot announced plans to further build an additional one-gigawatt mining facility in Navarro County, Texas. Following the cryptocurrency market crash in 2022, CEO Jason Les told Yahoo Finance that Bitcoin mining would “continue to thrive in the U.S.” and stated that there were “huge opportunities here despite the economic benefits of Bitcoin mining declining.”
By January 2023, the company rebranded as Riot Platforms to diversify its business model, as the cryptocurrency mining industry faced ongoing challenges from the cryptocurrency winter and rising energy prices.
In early 2024, the company warned shareholders that it could not guarantee a positive impact on its profitability from the upcoming Bitcoin halving. In June, the company became a target of short-seller Kerrisdale, which claimed that “Bitcoin mining is one of the dumbest business models we’ve encountered in our 15 years of short selling,” but the company’s stock price quickly rebounded after an initial drop following the report.
6. Coinbase Global, Inc.
Undoubtedly the most well-known cryptocurrency company on this list is the crypto exchange platform Coinbase, which had a milestone direct listing on the Nasdaq in April 2021.
Before going public, in February 2021, Coinbase revealed that it held $230 million worth of Bitcoin on its balance sheet. By June 2024, it holds 9,000 Bitcoins in its reserves, valued slightly under $642 million.
7. Galaxy Digital Holdings
Focused on cryptocurrencies, Galaxy Digital Holdings, a commercial bank, holds 8,100 Bitcoins. This is a decrease from the 16,400 Bitcoins it held in July 2022, although the growth in Bitcoin prices means its Bitcoin holdings were valued at nearly $578 million in June 2024, compared to $357 million two years prior.
Founded by Michael Novogratz in January 2018, Galaxy Digital has partnered with various cryptocurrency companies, including Block.one and BlockFi. Unsurprisingly, Novogratz is a staunch supporter of Bitcoin, stating in March 2024 that Bitcoin will never fall below $50,000 and predicting a rise to $100,000 by the end of the year.
Galaxy Digital is among the companies managing exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on U.S. spot Bitcoin trading platforms. These ETFs received historic approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January 2024.
8. Block, Inc.
In October 2020, Block, Inc. and Tesla ignited institutional investment in Bitcoin, with Block investing $50 million in Bitcoin at the time. By June 2024, the company holds 8,027 Bitcoins, valued at around $573 million. This isn’t surprising given that the company’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, is a vocal advocate of Bitcoin (even running his own Bitcoin node).
At the time of the initial investment, the company described it as “part of Square’s continued commitment to Bitcoin” and noted that the company planned to evaluate its total investment in Bitcoin based on other investment circumstances.
The company has invested in Bitcoin technology, launching its own Bitcoin wallet, and developing Bitcoin mining ASIC chips. In April 2024, its payment service subsidiary Square announced that it would allow businesses using its Cash App product to automatically convert a portion of their daily sales into Bitcoin.
In May 2024, the company announced that it would reinvest 10% of profits from Bitcoin-related products and services into Bitcoin in a dollar-cost averaging (DCA) manner for its purchase plan.
The company changed its name from Square to Block in December 2021, an apparent reference to the blockchain technology that Bitcoin is based on. This renaming came a week before Dorsey announced he would step down as CEO of Twitter early, focusing on the rebranding of the payment company.
9. CleanSpark
American Bitcoin mining company CleanSpark holds 6,154 Bitcoins, valued at approximately $439 million as of June 2024.
Before the Bitcoin halving in 2024, the company expanded its operations and acquired three Bitcoin mining facilities in Mississippi for $19.8 million, increasing its mining capacity by 2.4 EH/s. The company also added a third facility in Dalton, Georgia, with an additional 0.8 EH/s mining capacity.
In June 2024, CleanSpark revealed that they mined 417 Bitcoins in May and claimed to have “exceeded industry expectations” in the first full production month post-halving. The company also stated plans to expand to a location in Wyoming “in the coming days.”
10. Bitcoin Group SE
Based in Germany, venture capital company Bitcoin Group SE ranks lower on the list, holding relatively fewer 3,830 Bitcoins, valued at $275 million at current prices.
The company’s investments include cryptocurrency exchange platform Bitcoin.de and Futurum Bank. These two companies merged in October 2020, forming the “first German cryptocurrency bank.” This move came after the German parliament decided to allow banks to sell and store cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin Group SE’s Managing Director, Marco Bodewein, emphasized the opportunity to introduce institutional investors to the “high returns and security features” of cryptocurrencies.
