In recent months, a billionaire bitcoins investor Michael Saylor tried to convince Microsoft allocate some of the more than $78.42 billion in cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet to purchase bitcoin.
This strategy proved lucrative for Saylor and the company he co-founded, Micro-strategy. The company's stock price has increased by more than 410% this year, and as of December 8, the company held approximately 423,650 bitcoins, with a value of more than $42.3 billion. Bitcoin costs around $100,000. According to the company, MicroStrategy acquired these shares for a total consideration of approximately $26.5 billion.
This approach to the balance sheet is currently used entered the Nasdaq 100 stock exchange and the major ETFs that track it, such as Invesco QQQDecember 23 with MicroStrategy in the technology index.
However, Saylor's attempt to convince Microsoft and him shareholders to convert cash flow, dividends, buybacks and debt into bitcoin – supported by the conservative think tank The Free Enterprise Project, which submitted a shareholder proposal to Microsoft and submitted a similar proposal Amazon — he wasn't close to passing. Just 0.55% of the votes at the company's annual meeting on December 10 supported this plan. Microsoft, as well as proxy advisors Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services, suggested shareholders reject the proposal before the vote.
The more conservative stance of corporations and their shareholders, even in the face of Bitcoin's surge, is reflected in the latest release CNBC Chief Financial Officer's Council quarterly survey, released Thursday. When asked about their opinion on bitcoin, 78% of survey respondents said that bitcoin is a highly speculative asset class, while only 7% said it is a reliable store of value.
However, cryptocurrencies are making some progress among CFOs when it comes to overall acceptance levels. Notably, 11% of CFOs in the fourth quarter survey said bitcoin was a fraud, a significant drop from previous CNBC CFO Council surveys that asked this question.
In 2017, 28% of CFOs said it was a scam. In 2021, when asked the same question, 19% said it was a scam.
The percentage of respondents who have no view on bitcoin – whether it is a scam, a store of value or a speculative asset class – has fallen from 30% in 2017 to just 4% in the latest survey.
CNBC's quarterly CFO Council survey reflects selected views of CFOs from across the market and sectors. 27 respondents took part in the survey for the fourth quarter, conducted between December 9 and 16.
According to him, there are three publicly traded companies that hold more than 10,000 bitcoins bitcoin tracking website Bitcoin Treasuries. — Microstrategy, Digital marathonAND Riot platforms. Other crypto companies such as Coinbase AND Blockalso reveal cryptocurrency holdings.
However, there are very few non-cryptocurrency-focused public companies that disclose any holdings – Tesla, who bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in 2021being one of the lone exceptions – despite the sharp rise in bitcoin prices this year, as well as its growing interest in the political landscape.
Microsoft is ahead of many companies in its cryptocurrency considerations. It was said in October submitting a power of attorney that its treasury and investment services team has previously evaluated bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to finance the company's operations and reduce economic risk, adding that it “continues to monitor cryptocurrency trends and developments to inform future decisions.”
At its annual meeting, the company also noted that it began accepting cryptocurrencies for customer payments in 2014.
The vast majority of respondents to CNBC's quarterly CFO Council survey said their company does not own bitcoin or any cryptocurrency, nor does it accept any of them as a form of payment.
It's unclear how much this corporate strategy will change depending on the Trump administration's actions. President-elect Donald Trump made several pro-crypto campaign promises, including pro-establishment national strategic bitcoin reserve, something that The Texas House of Representatives is now pushing for it as well.
“We're going to do something great with cryptocurrencies because we don't want China or anyone else… but others are embracing it and we want to stay one step ahead of us,” Trump told CNBC's Jim Cramer during the conference New York Stock Exchange earlier this monthanswering the question about a potential strategic reserve of bitcoins.
Appearing on CNBC's “Money Movers” on Monday, Saylor continued to advocate for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and called on the U.S. government to allow U.S. banks and corporations to issue tokens backed by the U.S. dollar.
“The big opportunity in the United States is to issue a global reserve digital currency,” he said.