Bitwise CIO Says MicroStrategy’s BTC Holding is an Overlooked Megatrend

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer (CIO) Matt Hougan said MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin Strategy is an overlooked megatrend and predicted that hundreds of companies will adopt Bitcoin as a reserve asset over the next year and a half, boosting the Bitcoin market, according to a Jan. 13 blog post.

“I’ve spent the past few months digging into the idea of companies buying and holding Bitcoin as a treasury asset, and I’ve come away thinking that this is a much bigger trend than most people realize. In fact, I think it’s a bona fide megatrend,” Hougan wrote.

Hougan claims MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin strategy isn’t getting enough attention, as most investors think the company is a one-off. However, he believes corporate Bitcoin investments will proliferate into a megatrend for three reasons.

The first is because of MicroStrategy’s size. Despite being the 220th-largest company globally by market cap, it purchased considerably more than all Bitcoin mined in 2024. There were 210,000 bitcoins mined in 2024, while Microstrategy holds over 450,000 Bitcoins. Hougan believes things could get interesting if larger companies - like Meta, which is 20x larger than MicroStrategy - adopt this strategy

70 companies

The following reason is that the trend is already growing. Even though MicroStrategy gets most of the press, 70 publicly traded companies, including Coinbase, Block, Tesla, and Semlar Scientific, own Bitcoin. Excluding MicroStrategy’s holdings, these companies own a combined 141,539 BTC, according to Bitcoin Treasuries data.

Bitwise also operates a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which holds 40,575 BTC worth $3.9 billion, according to current Bitcoin prices.

The third reason is that the two main factors that prevented companies from adopting MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin strategy are no longer as significant. The Trump administration’s embracing of crypto has helped reduce the reputational risks associated with corporate Bitcoin investments.

Accounting standards

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has implemented a new rule, ASU 2023-08, which changes how companies account for Bitcoin in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) reporting.

Before, companies had to mark Bitcoin's value on their books when they bought it, and its price fell, but they couldn’t mark the value up when it rose. The new rule allows them to do that and record a profit on paper.

Corporate Bitcoin investments have been ramping up already, with MicroStrategy, Semler Scientific, and Remixpoint all buying additional BTC in the last week. It will be interesting to see how many more companies join the trend in the coming months.