Who has already invested in Bitcoin and what it means for the future

The appearance of legendary investor Bill Miller on CNBC sparked a new wave of interest in the topic of Bitcoin reserves for business. The founder of Miller Value Partners stated that a mass transition of companies to using Bitcoin as a strategic reserve would occur within 20–30 years. However, this process has already begun, with several companies worldwide having added the first cryptocurrency to their balance sheets.

Pioneers of corporate Bitcoin hodling

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy)

One of the most prominent cases of Bitcoin on the balance sheet belongs to Strategy (known as MicroStrategy until February 2025). Since August 2020, under the leadership of Michael Saylor, the company began strategically acquiring Bitcoin, positioning it as "digital gold" and a hedge against inflation. This move transformed the company's entire business model.

By the end of 2024, Strategy held 423,650 BTC worth approximately $42.4 billion. During the same period, the company officially announced a name change — abandoning "MicroStrategy" in favor of the more concise "Strategy," thereby emphasizing its shift from BI solutions to a crypto-oriented capital management strategy.

By spring–summer 2025, its Bitcoin reserves had grown to 553,555 BTC, which is roughly 2.6% of the total Bitcoin supply, with a market value exceeding $53 billion according to the Financial Times. By mid-2025, according to Investopedia, the total holdings had reached 581,000 BTC, with an estimated value of around $63 billion.

Finally, on July 29, 2025, Strategy held its initial public offering (IPO) under the ticker STRC and raised $2.521 billion. All the proceeds were used to purchase 21,021 Bitcoin at an average price of about $117,256 per BTC — one of the highest purchase prices in the company's history. Thus, as of the end of July 2025, Strategy owns 628,791 BTC.

For comparison, the company's traditional business — business intelligence software — generated about $463 million in revenue for 2024, clearly demonstrating Strategy's shift in focus toward a cryptocurrency strategy.

Tesla

In February 2021, Elon Musk's Tesla officially announced a $1.5 billion Bitcoin investment, acquiring approximately 43,200 BTC — about 8% of its free cash reserves at the time. This was the first public move of such scale by an S&P 500 corporation and marked the beginning of a new era in the institutional perception of digital assets as a strategic reserve.

Alongside the investment, Tesla briefly accepted Bitcoin as payment for vehicles in the U.S., reinforcing its legitimacy as a payment instrument. Although this feature was later paused, the wave of public and institutional interest in Bitcoin had already been set in motion.

According to Bitbo, as of July 2025, Tesla holds 11,509 BTC on its balance sheet. At the current Bitcoin price range of $117,000–$118,000, these reserves are valued at approximately $1.24–1.35 billion.

While the company has reduced the share of Bitcoin in its reserves, its initial actions had far-reaching consequences. According to Financial Times analysts, Tesla's investment was the turning point in Bitcoin's institutionalization.

Block, Inc. (formerly Square)

Block, Inc., founded by Jack Dorsey (ex-CEO of Twitter), is one of the most vivid examples of the strategic integration of Bitcoin into a corporate structure. Since rebranding from Square to Block in 2021, the company has been steadily developing BTC-oriented products, investments, and infrastructure.

As of July 2025, according to Bitbo, Block holds 8,584 BTC — equivalent to roughly $1 billion at market price (~$117,000 per BTC). This represents about 0.041% of the total Bitcoin supply, making Block one of the largest publicly listed Bitcoin-holding companies. A key feature of its strategy is the regular replenishment of reserves: 10% of profits are allocated to purchasing Bitcoin. This policy is publicly documented in reports and remains in place despite high market volatility.

A milestone event came on July 23, 2025, when Block was officially added to the S&P 500 index. Thus, Block became the third public company in the S&P 500 to hold Bitcoin on its balance sheet (after Tesla and Coinbase), further embedding BTC into traditional financial portfolios of index funds.

Why are businesses choosing Bitcoin?

Bill Miller has repeatedly emphasized that Bitcoin's technological foundation — Proof-of-Work (PoW) — makes it the only truly decentralized digital asset among all existing blockchain networks.

In contrast, Miller points to Ethereum and Solana blockchains, which use the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) model. This model, in his view, is fundamentally flawed because influence over network governance is directly proportional to the number of tokens held. Simply put: the more assets a user owns, the more "votes" they have in decision-making. Miller argues that this essentially replicates the principles of the traditional capitalist model: the economic elite make the rules for everyone else. This, he believes, undermines the idea of the "democratization of money" on which cryptocurrency was initially built.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, is structured differently. Its PoW model requires the investment of real computing power and electricity, making participation in consensus costly but independent of financial influence. The network's security is ensured through an open and competitive mining process, where participants compete to add a block by solving a mathematical problem. According to Miller, this creates a unique distributed equilibrium, where even with the presence of large players (e.g., mining pools), control remains decentralized due to transparency, reproducibility, and physical cost anchoring.

Implications of mass adoption

1. Financial independence for businesses: Bitcoin as a supranational asset

In the context of geopolitical and currency turbulence, Bitcoin becomes a tool for companies to reduce reliance on fiat currencies, primarily U.S. dollar reserves. Unlike government-issued money, Bitcoin is not issued by a central bank, is not controlled by political structures, and cannot be frozen or devalued by external regulators. This is especially important for multinational corporations operating in various jurisdictions where sanctions and currency risks can disrupt supply chains and settlements.

2. Increased institutional and public trust in cryptocurrencies

Investments in Bitcoin by major public companies send a strong social and market signal, confirming the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies as an asset class. When brands like BlackRock, Fidelity, Tesla, or Coinbase hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets or launch Bitcoin ETFs, it reduces the perception of BTC as a purely speculative or grey-market instrument.

The growth in institutional participation also boosts interest from retail investors. Bitcoin is increasingly seen as a "haven" asset, especially in a volatile macroeconomic environment.

3. Tighter regulatory pressure: state response to corporate digital sovereignty

As the share of Bitcoin in corporate assets grows, so does the attention from governments. Regulators in the U.S., EU, and Asia are tightening oversight on reporting, custody rules, KYC/AML requirements, and digital asset taxation. Examples include the European MiCA regulation and the G20's discussions on cross-border digital asset transfers.

States view the mass adoption of Bitcoin as a challenge to monetary sovereignty: a private digital asset not controlled by central banks could displace national currencies as a store of value and medium of exchange. Therefore, as corporate interest in Bitcoin grows, government pressure will intensify.