Bitcoin on the Balance Sheet? Corporate Buying Might Become a Global Trend

Bitcoin and ether purchases by companies in Scandinavia and Hong Kong are fueling speculation a wave of non-U.S. corporate treasurers might follow MicroStrategy, Tesla and Square into buying cryptocurrencies, according to a new report by the Norwegian analysis firm Arcane Research.

Hong Kong-listed Meitu, a maker of photo-retouching software, said it bought 15,000 ETH and 379 BTC in open-market transactions last week. Arcane figures the company paid an average $47,230, well below the current market level of around $57,000.

In addition, on Monday Aker, a Norwegian energy engineering company, added 1,170 BTC to its balance sheet, paying approximately $58 million, at an average price of around $49,600.

According to Arcane, the new corporate buyers appear intent on keeping the cryptocurrencies for the long term "and see further upside potential in bitcoin." MicroStrategy, led by CEO Michael Saylor and based in Virginia, holds about 91,064 BTC purchased over the past three months, now worth about $5 billion. Meanwhile the U.S. electric-vehicle maker Tesla, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, bought about $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in February..

“The first wave, initiated by MicroStrategy, started in the U.S., but now the trend shows signs of turning global,” Arcane wrote.

With bitcoin firmly in a bull run, quadrupling in price last year and nearly doubling in price already in 2021, the sooner a company got into the market, the better a price it got – as illustrated by Arcane's chart below.