The notion that publicly traded companies could purchase Cryptocurrency for their resources was viewed as absurd for many years. The most popular bitcoin was deemed too dangerous and unwelcoming by any legitimate company.

With a number of big institutional investors buying up Bitcoins in recent years, that stigma has been well and truly broken.

The doors were first opened when MicroStrategy, a cloud technology firm, purchased$ 425 million price of Bitcoin in August and September 2020. Other companies followed suit, including Tesla, a maker of electric cars, and Block, a payment processor.

Per BitcoinTreasuries, open firms holding Bitcoin now account for 2.8 % of the total supply of 21 million BTC. As of this writing, these are the biggest recipients.

1. Dashboard

MicroStrategy, a popular business analytics program turned Bitcoin government organization, has adopted BTC as its main reserve asset.

The company, which produces portable software and provides cloud-based companies, has aggressively pursued a Crypto purchasing spree, scooping up millions of dollars worth of the crypto. As of this writing in January 2025, it holds 461, 000 BTC in reserve, similar to over$ 48 billion price and more than 2 % of the total amount of Bitcoin that will ever be issued.

At one level, MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said, he was buying$ 1, 000 in Bitcoin every minute. In the agency’s Q1 2024 income phone, Saylor claimed that the company’s implementation of a” Bitcoin plan” had enabled it to provide 10x to 30x the effectiveness of rival business technology firms in the business intelligence sector.

Saylor has disclosed that he physically purchased 17, 732 BTC, which are still held by him as of September 2024, in contrast to other executives who generally shy away from disclosing their personal investments. It’s something of an about-face for the MicroStrategy co-founder, who in 2013 claimed that Bitcoin’s days were numbered.

” We’re at the beginning of the period of rapid administrative implementation of electronic home in the form of Bitcoin”, Saylor said during the agency’s Q1 2024 earnings call. He added that in the future, Bitcoin won’t compete against other crypto assets, but against, “gold, skill, equities, real property, bonds, and other types of store-of-value wealth in wealth creation, money protection, and the money markets”.

Since MicroStrategy is currently raising a organized$ 42 billion to do just that, it intends to purchase even more Cryptocurrency. Shareholders finally voted against the proposal, and Saylor is also making the pitch to different publicly traded companies, including Microsoft.

2. Marathon Digital Holdings Inc.

Crypto mining company Marathon Digital, understandably, is also a large owner of Bitcoin, with 44, 394 BTC in its commercial bank according to its most recent update in December 2024. That’s worth more than$ 4.6 billion at today’s prices.

Before its transition into crypto mining, the business, which claims to have” the largest Bitcoin mining operation in North America at one of the lowest energy costs,” was founded as a patent holding company ( and was frequently called a patent troll ).

As of July 2024, Marathon Digital runs more than 250, 000 Bitcoin miners capable of producing 31.5 EH/s, with an average operational hash rate of 26.3 EH/s.

In a bid to “mitigate the impact” of receiving half the BTC rewards per each successfully mined block, the company stated that it is accelerating its growth plans in the wake of the 2024 Bitcoin halving. In 2024, the company had stated that it wanted to double the size of its mining operations.

The company increased its revenue by 35 % to$ 132 million in Q3 2024, up from$ 98 million in Q2. Convertible notes, which were recently used to purchase Bitcoin, raised nearly$ 2 billion.

3. Riot Platforms, Inc.

Another crypto mining outfit, U. S. based Riot Platforms, holds 17, 722 BTC—worth about$ 1.85 billion at today’s prices.

With its valuation surging from below$ 200 million in 2020 to highs of over$ 6 billion in 2021, the Nasdaq-listed company went on an aggressive expansion drive. It invested$ 650 million in a one-gigawatt Bitcoin mining facility in Texas in April 2021, expanding even further in 2022 before rebranding to Riot Platforms to diversify its business model in 2023.

There was a” no guarantee” that Bitcoin would be halved in 2024, and while RIOT shares briefly traded around$ 18 in the first half of the year, the stock gradually fell before falling below$ 10 from August until late October. After that, it grew in response to Donald Trump’s election as president-elect, along with a resurgence for Bitcoin mining stocks and the broader cryptocurrency market.

In 2024, the business attempted to oust the rival by attempting a hostile takeover of the rival, and it also reached a settlement with Bitfarms, a miner of bitcoin.

4. Galaxy Digital Holdings

Crypto-focused merchant bank Galaxy Digital Holdings holds an estimated 11, 242 BTC according to data from a November 2024 investor release, based on having$ 711 million worth of Bitcoin as of September 30, 2024. At the current price, as of this writing, that amount of Bitcoin is worth about$ 1.18 billion.

The business, which was founded by Michael Novogratz in January 2018, offers services in the areas of asset management and digital infrastructure to organizations looking to access digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Novogratz is, unsurprisingly, a keen advocate for Bitcoin, arguing in March 2024 that the cryptocurrency would never dip below$ 50, 000 again, and months later predicting that it would soar to$ 100, 000 by the end of the year.

Following the SEC’s landmark approval in January 2024, Galaxy Digital is one of several companies managing a U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF. Novogratz recently claimed that Trump’s victory in the presidential election would be” the most significant day for crypto.”

5. Hut 8 Corp

According to its most recent update from December 2024, the Canadian Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 holds 10, 096, BTC, valued at more than$ 1 billion.

The company’s SEC filing states that it is” committed to growing shareholder value by increasing the number and value of our Bitcoin holdings.” In June 2021, the company was listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the HUT ticker.

Additionally, the business explained that it uses yield account arrangements with leading digital asset prime brokerages to leverage its reserve of self-mined and held Bitcoin to generate fiat income.

The post-merger company bills itself as an “energy infrastructure company targeting Bitcoin mining and data centers,” and the company merged with fellow mining company US Bitcoin in November 2023. Those mining centers are based at six sites across Alberta, Texas, and New York, with a reported 7.5 EH/s of installed self-mining capacity.

The company made a$ 150 million investment in June of last year to increase its demand for AI compute, and its stock nearly doubled in the weeks following the presidential election, bringing its market cap to more than$ 2 billion as of this writing.

6. Tesla

Tesla cybertruck in a garage
A Tesla Cybertruck. Image: Shutterstock.

Tesla, a manufacturer of electric vehicles, joined the ranks of companies that are Bitcoin investors in December 2020, with an SEC filing revealing that Tesla invested” an aggregate$ 1.5 billion” in Bitcoin.

Tesla sold 10 % of its Bitcoin holdings in Q1 2021, according to CEO Elon Musk,” to demonstrate liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to holding cash on balance sheet.”

The company’s Bitcoin play followed months of speculation, after CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter (aka X ) to discuss the cryptocurrency. In late 2020, MicroStrategy’s Saylor offered to share his “playbook” for Bitcoin investing with Musk, after arguing that a move into Bitcoin would be doing Tesla shareholders a”$ 100 billion favor”.

However, Musk and Tesla have had an on-and-off relationship with Bitcoin. Just two months after Tesla announced that it would no longer accept Bitcoin for payments for its goods and services in March 2021, the CEO abruptly announced that the company would no longer accept Bitcoin for payments.

Musk stated that the company wouldn’t be selling any of its Bitcoin holdings and would consider using it for transactions once it” transitions to more sustainable energy” and that it was “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions.” Once miners have reached a 50 % clean energy level, he later stated that the business will resume using Bitcoin for transactions.

In July 2022, the company revealed that it had sold “approximately 75 %” of its Bitcoin in its Q2 2022 quarterly update, with its balance sheet showing sales from digital assets amounting to$ 936 million. In a call with analysts, Musk claimed the company did it to improve its cash position in the face of uncertainty surrounding COVID lockdowns.

As of January 2025, the company holds 9, 720 BTC in its portfolio—worth just over$ 1 billion at current prices—per bitcointreasuries. org. Tesla’s balance sheet is still a mystery, but Musk has stated that he is “open to increasing its Bitcoin holdings in the future.”

Musk is perhaps best known for being a fervent supporter of Dogecoin. Tesla has allowed Dogecoin to purchase some goods, and Musk is now in charge of the DOGE, which has created new meme coins and a quick upward trend for Dogecoin.

7. Coinbase Global, Inc.

Coinbase, the most well-known crypto company on this list, went public in a landmark Nasdaq direct listing in April 2021, arguably the most well-known one.

Ahead of its listing, in February 2021, Coinbase revealed that it held$ 230 million in Bitcoin on its balance sheet. As of its September 2024 10-Q filing, it holds 9, 363 BTC in its treasury, worth around$ 980 million.

In the wake of the 2024 Presidential election, the company’s stock has returned to its all-time high, and it is continuing to innovate with Bitcoin, most recently announcing its own wrapped Bitcoin product, cbBTC. Coinbase also recently reactivated its Bitcoin lending business.

8. CleanSpark

U. S. Bitcoin mining firm CleanSpark holds 9, 297 BTC, worth around$ 975 million at today’s prices.

Ahead of the 2024 Bitcoin halving, the firm expanded its operations, snapping up three Bitcoin mining facilities in Mississippi for$ 19.8 million and adding up to 2.4 EH/s to its mining capacity. The company also added a third facility in Dalton, Georgia to its lineup, with a further 0.8 EH/s.

In its first full month of production following the halving, CleanSpark claimed to have “outperformed industry expectations” in its first full month of production in June 2024. The business added that “in the coming days,” it plans to add a site there as well.

The company’s stock, like that of its peers, nearly doubled in the weeks following the election, valuing the company at more than$ 3 billion at the time of writing.

9. Block, Inc.

With its$ 50 million investment in the cryptocurrency in October 2020, Square parent company Block, along with Tesla, ignited institutional investment in the currency.

As of the end of September 2024, the firm holds 8, 363 Bitcoin, worth about$ 876 million.

Given that CEO Jack Dorsey is an active supporter of Bitcoin, even running his own Bitcoin node and calling the white paper of the coin “poetry,” the investment is perhaps unsurprising.

The company stated that its initial investment was “part of Square’s ongoing commitment to Bitcoin,” noting that” the company plans to evaluate its overall investment in Bitcoin in relation to its other investments on an ongoing basis.”

The business has made significant investments in Bitcoin technology, including creating an ASIC chip for Bitcoin mining, and creating a new wallet for it. In April 2024, Square, its payment services division, made the announcement that it would allow businesses using its Cash App product to automatically convert a portion of daily sales into Bitcoin.

In a dollar cost average or DCA purchase program, the company announced in May 2024 that it would reinvest 10 % of its profits from Bitcoin-related goods and services into BTC.

10. Bitcoin Group SE

Germany-based venture capital firm Bitcoin Group SE brings up the rear of the list, with approximate Bitcoin holdings of 3, 678 based on a recent financial update, worth$ 385 million.

Bitcoin is one of its investments, along with it. de and Futurum bank, which merged in October 2020 to form” Germany’s first crypto bank”.

The move came in response to the German parliament’s decision to allow banks to sell and store cryptocurrencies, with Marco Bodewein, the managing director of Bitcoin Group SE, highlighting the opportunity to introduce the bank’s institutional investors to crypto’s “high returns and safety features.”

Throughout the summer, Germany sold the majority of its sequestered Bitcoin assets.

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