For years, the idea of publicly listed companies purchasing Bitcoin as reserves was considered laughable. This top-tier cryptocurrency was seen as too volatile, too niche, and not something any serious enterprise would consider.
However, this taboo has been thoroughly broken, with many significant institutional investors buying Bitcoin in recent years.
When the 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 BitcoinTreasuries, publicly listed companies now hold nearly 1.5% of the total 21 million Bitcoins.
MicroStrategy, a well-known business analytics platform, has adopted Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset. This company, which produces mobile software and cloud-based services, has aggressively pursued Bitcoin purchases, acquiring millions of dollars' worth of the cryptocurrency. As of May 2025, the company holds 214,400 Bitcoins, equivalent to $14.8 billion, surpassing 1% of the total Bitcoin supply.
CEO Michael Saylor once stated he was buying $1,000 worth of Bitcoin every second. In the company's Q1 2024 earnings call, Saylor claimed that adopting a "Bitcoin strategy" has improved the performance of its competitors in the business intelligence space by 10 to 30 times.
Unlike other CEOs who typically avoid discussing personal investments, Saylor has openly stated he personally owns 17,732 Bitcoins, currently valued at over $1.2 billion.
According to BitInfoCharts, if Saylor's Bitcoins are assumed to be stored in one address, this would place him among the top 101 Bitcoin holders. This marks a significant shift in attitude for MicroStrategy's CEO, who once claimed in 2013 that Bitcoin's days were numbered.
In the Q1 2024 earnings call, Saylor stated, "We are in the early stages of Bitcoin being rapidly adopted as a digital asset by institutions." He added that in the future, Bitcoin will not compete with other cryptocurrencies but with gold, art, stocks, real estate, bonds, and other forms of wealth in terms of wealth creation, wealth protection, and capital markets.
Unsurprisingly, Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital is also a significant Bitcoin holder, with 17,631 Bitcoins in its corporate reserves (valued at approximately $1.23 billion as of May 2024). The company aims to establish "one of the largest Bitcoin mining operations in North America with the lowest energy costs." Before transitioning to crypto mining, the company was initially a patent holding company (often referred to as a "patent troll").
As of May 2024, Marathon Digital operates approximately 240,000 Bitcoin mining machines, capable of generating 29.9 EH/s of computing power, with an average operating hash rate of 21.1 EH/s.
The company noted that it accelerated its growth plans after the 2024 Bitcoin halving to "mitigate impact," expressing hopes to double its mining operations in 2024.
However, the company failed to meet its Q1 2024 revenue targets due to "unexpected device failures, power line maintenance, and weather-related constraints at Garden City and other locations."
Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla joined the ranks of Bitcoin-holding companies in December 2020, disclosing in an SEC filing that it had invested "a total of $1.5 billion" in Bitcoin.
Tesla sold 10% of its Bitcoin holdings in Q1 2021; according to CEO Elon Musk, this was to demonstrate Bitcoin's liquidity as an alternative to holding cash.
Tesla's Bitcoin investment came after months of speculation following Musk's tweets about Bitcoin. In late 2020, MicroStrategy's Saylor expressed willingness to share his "strategy" for Bitcoin investment with Musk, claiming that Tesla's entry into Bitcoin would bring "a $100 billion benefit" to Tesla shareholders.
However, Tesla's relationship with Bitcoin has been tumultuous. After announcing in March 2021 that it would accept Bitcoin for its products and services, Musk abruptly announced just two months later that the company would no longer accept Bitcoin as payment.
Musk cited the "rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels" for Bitcoin mining and transactions as the reason. He clarified that Tesla would not sell any of its Bitcoin holdings and would reconsider using it for transactions once mining transitions to "more sustainable energy." Later, he stated that the company would resume Bitcoin transactions once miners used 50% clean energy.
In July 2022, Tesla revealed in its Q2 2022 update that it had sold "approximately 75%" of its Bitcoin holdings, with total digital asset sales reaching $936 million. In a call with analysts, Musk explained that the move was to bolster the company's cash position amid COVID-19 lockdown uncertainties, adding that the company was "open to increasing our Bitcoin holdings in the future, so this should not be taken as some verdict on Bitcoin."
According to bitcointreasuries.org, Tesla holds 9,720 Bitcoins in its investment portfolio as of May 2024 (worth approximately $677 million 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 enthusiastic supporter of Dogecoin, with Tesla allowing purchases of some merchandise using Dogecoin.
Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 holds 9,109 Bitcoins, valued at approximately $644 million at current prices.
The company listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in June 2021 under the ticker HUT. Its SEC filings state that it is committed to increasing shareholder value by increasing its Bitcoin holdings and value.
The company also explained that it generates fiat currency income by leveraging its self-mined and held Bitcoin reserves through yield account arrangements with leading digital asset prime brokers.
In November 2023, Hut 8 merged with another Bitcoin mining company, US Bitcoin, forming a combined entity that aims to be "an energy infrastructure company focused on Bitcoin mining and data centers." These mining centers are located in six locations in Alberta, Texas, and New York, with a reported self-mining capacity of 7.5 EH/s.
In its Q1 2024 earnings report, the company reported $51.7 million in revenue for the quarter, an increase of 231% year-over-year.
Another US-based cryptocurrency mining company, Riot Blockchain, holds 9,084 Bitcoins, worth $643 million at today's prices.
The company's valuation rose from under $200 million in 2020 to over $6 billion in 2021, with the Nasdaq-listed company undergoing aggressive expansion. In April 2021, it spent $650 million to purchase a 1-gigawatt Bitcoin mining facility in Rockdale, Texas; the company described this acquisition as a "transformational event" that made it "the largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining and hosting company in North America by total developed capacity."
In April 2022, Riot announced further plans to build an additional 1-gigawatt mining facility in Navarro County, Texas. After the cryptocurrency market crash in 2022, CEO Jason Les told Yahoo Finance that Bitcoin mining would "continue to thrive in the US," despite the economic downturn, stating that "there is still a huge opportunity here."
By January 2023, the company rebranded as Riot Platforms, aiming to diversify its business model amid the ongoing crypto winter and rising energy prices.
In early 2024, the company warned shareholders that "there is no guarantee" that the upcoming Bitcoin halving would positively impact its profitability. 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 shorting," but the company's stock quickly recovered after an initial drop following the report's release.
Undoubtedly the most well-known cryptocurrency company on this list, cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase conducted a landmark direct listing on the Nasdaq in April 2021.
Before its listing, in February 2021, Coinbase revealed it held $230 million worth of Bitcoin on its balance sheet. By June 2024, it held 9,000 Bitcoins in its reserves, valued at just under $642 million.
Cryptocurrency-focused commercial bank Galaxy Digital Holdings holds 8,100 Bitcoins. This is down from the 16,400 Bitcoins held in July 2022, although the rise in Bitcoin prices means the dollar value of its holdings in June 2024 is close to $578 million, compared to $357 million two years earlier.
Galaxy Digital Holdings was founded by Michael Novogratz in January 2018 and has formed partnerships with cryptocurrency companies, including Block.one and BlockFi. Unsurprisingly, Novogratz is a staunch supporter of Bitcoin, stating in March 2024 that Bitcoin would never again drop below $50,000, and a few months later, predicting Bitcoin would surge to $100,000 by the end of the year.
Galaxy Digital is among the companies managing a US spot Bitcoin ETF, which received historic approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January 2024.
In October 2020, Block Inc. joined Tesla in sparking institutional investment in Bitcoin by investing $50 million in Bitcoin. By June 2024, the company held 8,027 Bitcoins, valued at approximately $573 million. This is perhaps unsurprising, given that its CEO Jack Dorsey is an active advocate for Bitcoin (even running his own Bitcoin node).
At the time of the initial investment, the company described it as "part of Square's ongoing commitment to Bitcoin," noting that "the company plans to continually assess its total investment in Bitcoin relative to other investments."
The company has already invested in Bitcoin technology, launching its Bitcoin wallet and developing a Bitcoin mining ASIC chip. In April 2024, its payments subsidiary Square announced it would allow businesses using its Cash App product to automatically convert a portion of daily sales into Bitcoin.
In May 2024, the company announced it would reinvest 10% of the profits from Bitcoin-related products and services into Bitcoin purchases using a dollar-cost averaging (DCA) strategy.
The company changed its name from Square to Block in December 2021, clearly a reference to the blockchain technology underlying Bitcoin. This rebranding followed Dorsey's announcement a week earlier that he was stepping down as Twitter CEO to focus on the payments company.
US Bitcoin mining company CleanSpark holds 6,154 Bitcoins, valued at approximately $439 million as of June 2024.
Before the 2024 Bitcoin halving, the company expanded its operations by acquiring three Bitcoin mining facilities in Mississippi for $19.8 million, adding 2.4 EH/s to its mining capacity. The company also added a third facility in Dalton, Georgia, increasing its mining capacity by an additional 0.8 EH/s.
In June 2024, CleanSpark revealed it mined 417 Bitcoins in May and claimed it "exceeded industry expectations" in the first full production month post-halving. The company also announced plans to further expand to a location in Wyoming "in the coming days."
German-based venture capital firm Bitcoin Group SE ranks lower on the list, holding a relatively modest 3,830 Bitcoins, valued at $275 million at current prices.
The company's investments include the cryptocurrency trading platform Bitcoin.de and Futurum Bank. These two companies merged in October 2020 to form "Germany's first cryptocurrency bank." This move came after the German parliament decided to allow banks to sell and store cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin Group SE Managing Director Marco Bodewein highlighted the opportunity to introduce cryptocurrencies to the bank's institutional investors with "high return and security characteristics."
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