More and more companies choose Bitcoin as the prime asset for corporate reserves

On December 30, 2024, Genius Group Ltd, an education technology company, purchased $10 million worth of Bitcoin. The company aims to convert 90% of its funds into BTC. Recently, more and more companies around the world are choosing Bitcoin as the main asset in their corporate treasury.

Genius Group Bitcoin reserve

While many countries are working on strategic Bitcoin reserve offerings, private and public companies are purchasing bitcoin to build their corporate treasuries. Over one million Bitcoins are held in corporate treasuries of private and public companies.

Genius Group Limited is a Singapore-based AI-powered training and acceleration company with more than 5.4 million students worldwide. One of the rare characteristics of this company is its Bitcoin-first approach; This suggests that most (90%) of the company’s funds should be held in BTC.

On December 30, 2024, Genius Group announced that it had purchased $10 million worth of Bitcoin. Thus, the company increased its Bitcoin assets by 50%. The total amount of cryptocurrencies purchased by Genius Group reached 319.4 BTC.

Following the move, Genius Group’s stock price saw an 11% increase, and this is far from the only gain following the Bitcoinization of the company’s reserves. Bitcoin initial strategy was announced on November 12, 2024. Bitcoin return in the 4th quarter of 2024 is estimated to be 1,649%. According to Genius Group CEO Roger Hamilton, the company will explore various options to maximize shareholder value.

Genius Group switched to the Bitcoin Treasury Key Performance Indicator because the company’s management believes that the Bitcoin Standard will be beneficial for both the company and its shareholders. The Bitcoin Treasury KPI shows whether the company’s market value is above or below the value of its Bitcoin reserves.

Genius Group provided a comment to crypto.news in which they explained the company’s commitment to Bitcoin:

“We believe that a new breed of future-focused, AI-driven, blockchain-based, publicly traded companies can bridge the gap for investors between the current, centralized and regulated world of the NYSE, NASDAQ and other equity markets with the promise of decentralized, future-proofing. exponential economies. Genius Group’s unique position in educating now for the future gives us the opportunity to provide a layer of added value through education, where we prepare the next generation for a world where the ways they earn and learn are significantly different.

The Genius management team believes that with the rise of YGZ and the continued need for hard currency, Bitcoin is the obvious choice as a treasury asset to preserve and grow long-term shareholder value. “Being a Singapore-based company with 0% capital gains tax gives us an added advantage in our Bitcoin-first strategy.”

When asked how Genius Group timed the market to buy Bitcoin, the company responded:

“As believers in Bitcoin’s long-term potential, we do not try to time the market, but instead buy and hold with the intention of never selling.”

Institutional Bitcoin reserves as a new trend

The purchase of hundreds of bitcoins attracted great attention from Genius Group Ltd., but the company was far from a pioneer in this regard. As the crypto market began to grow in November 2024 and pro-crypto narratives intensified in all forms of media, many public and private companies began to switch to the Bitcoin Standard. They are building institutional Bitcoin reserves and are starting to estimate its value in Bitcoin at the same level as more traditional assets such as the US dollar. One of the latest examples is Thumzup media. He reportedly tries to keep 90% of his liquid assets in Bitcoin and spent $1 million on bitcoins on January 9, 2025.

As of January 6, 2024, Coingecko disclosed the names of 32 publicly traded companies holding Bitcoin. The Bitcoin Treasuries broker serves over 70 publicly traded companies that hold bitcoin. Tesla was among the first companies to increase the BTC price in 2021, with its decision to create a Bitcoin reserve moving the market. Since then, other companies have been more prominent in headlines about large Bitcoin purchases.

MicroStrategy is undoubtedly the best company associated with the steady growth of institutional BTC holdings and large amounts of purchased bitcoin. It holds more than 2.1% of the total Bitcoin supply, with approximately 450,000 BTC. Marathon Digital Holdings ranks second with over 26 thousand BTC. Other leaders include Galaxy Digital Holdings, Tesla Inc., Riot Platforms Inc. and many more companies. More than 20 publicly traded companies own more than 1,000 BTC each, according to Bitcoin Treasury. The same source shows eight private companies with more than 1,000 Bitcoin units in their corporate treasuries. The leading company is Block.one with 164 thousand BTC. Tether Holdings Limited follows it with 83 thousand BTC.

This trend can only be seen because it contradicts the mainstream institutional approach towards cryptocurrencies; Most companies still choose to stay away from Bitcoin or approach it with caution. For example, Microsoft shareholders were deciding whether the company would add Bitcoin to its balance sheets. The majority of shareholders voted against the proposal. The reason the Bitcoin bid was rejected was because the company was already doing reasonably well and investing in a volatile asset, although lucrative, could make Microsoft’s investment potential less predictable for shareholders. MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor called Microsoft’s refusal to add Bitcoin to the company’s balance sheet a “destruction of capital.”

There are many ways to explain why companies might need these bitcoins. First of all, Bitcoin reserves serve as a hedge against inflation. If BlackRock recommends allocating up to 2% of funds to Bitcoin, why not follow that advice? In terms of publicity, Bitcoin reserves can strengthen the company’s progressive image and attract more attention in the crypto community. Finally, buying BTC in a bull market can be seen as an attempt to quickly increase the company’s budget without the need to produce, promote or improve anything. However, the feasibility of investing a large portion of the company’s assets in Bitcoin is questionable, as some experts warn that the market trend will soon reverse.