Bitcoin Holding in Companies

[notblox1]

https://twitter.com/Coin98Analytics/status/1315853890424717312

We heard about Square investing in Bitcoin and I am sure many of you know about Grayscale but let's look at other publicly traded companies who purchased Bitcoin.
Total value for all of them is over $6 billion or around 600,000 BTC, but I am sure there are many more who not so famous or they purchased it with some 3rd party firms.
13 companies are holding around 2.85% of the total supply of Bitcoin.
Let's compare all of them:

449,596 Grayscale
  69,730 CoinShares
  38,250 MicroStrategy
  16,551 Galaxy digital
    8,195 3iQ
    5,215 BTCe
    4,709 Square
    2,954 HUT8
    1,239 Voyager
    1,053 Riot
       215 digital
       204 cypher punk holdings
       126 argo
 
More detailed report on Bitcoin Treasuries website:

https://bitcointreasuries.org/

Some say that Grayscale doesn't own any Bitcoin but that is for debate because they are Investment Trust, and their clients are buyers who own bitcoins.

[Upgrade00]

Some say that Grayscale doesn't own any Bitcoin but that is for debate because they are Investment Trust, and their clients are buyers who own bitcoins.

It's not really much of a debate. Grayscale has cryptocurrencies under its AUM ~ Assets Under Management, this refers to the sum of an asset which a company manages on behalf of her clients, so Grayscale is sort of like a channel through which investors access cryptocurrencies.

Assets in holding would refer to total assets which the company invested in, using company's funds and this would be reflected in their balance sheets. So microstrategy is risking about $425 million in Bitcoin, while Grayscale is not really risking anything, so we can not classify those assets in their AUM as holdings of the company.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

13 companies are holding around 2.85% of the total supply of Bitcoin.

Yikes!  That might sound like a positive thing for bitcoin, but it kind of scares me.  Just imagine if just a couple of those companies needed to dump their bitcoin holdings onto the market all at once--I would hope that they'd work out private deals instead of using exchanges, but who knows?

Aside from the fear of bitcoin being held by an increasingly large number of companies, I'm amazed that this is actually happening and I certainly would not have predicted corporations would start buying up bitcoin to hold as cash reserves/investment/whatever. 

So 2.85% held by these companies.  How much do the Winklevii twins hold?  And I can't even remember how much is in Satoshi's wallet, percentage-wise.  Makes me wonder how many individual bitcoin holders there really are out there.

[notblox1]

How much do the Winklevii twins hold?

Nobody can be exactly sure, but from some reports they could have up to 1% of the circulating Bitcoins, and that would be around 180,517 bitcoin now.
They started buying when Bitcoin was only $8 so you can imagine how much they can have
I should also mention RogerVer and rumors that he has more than 300,000 BTC unless he sold some to buy his Bcash trash.

[exstasie]

    5,215 BTCe

What company is this? I assume you aren't referring to the defunct exchange.

Some say that Grayscale doesn't own any Bitcoin but that is for debate because they are Investment Trust, and their clients are buyers who own bitcoins.

If Grayscale is included, then we might as well include the holdings of all exchanges and other custodial platforms. Coinbase, Bitfinex, Bitmex, etc. That would be pointless.

The interesting metric is not how many coins a company has in custody (including those of their clients) but rather how invested they are.

[notblox1]

What company is this? I assume you aren't referring to the defunct exchange.

No.
They are talking about this:
BTCetc - Bitcoin Exchange Traded Crypto - BTCE

ETC Group has recently launched the first physically backed Bitcoin
ETC listed on Deutsche Börse /Xetra, Europe’s largest ETF exchange
and one of the world’s top 10 stock exchanges. BTCE is distributed in
cooperation with HANetf and will be passported across several
European countries.

BTCetc – Bitcoin Exchange Traded Crypto (primary ticker: BTCE) allows investors to track the price
of Bitcoin, just like a share of a company on a stock exchange. BTCE is fully backed by physical Bitcoin,
held in cold storage with a regulated custodian and security over the collateral account is held by a trustee
for additional investor protection.

https://www.hanetf.com/UsersFiles/HanETF/Documents/405/BTCE-Points-of-Difference.pdf

[bitmover]

Nice analysis
I dont know most of those companies,  and the ones I ever heard were all cryptocurrency related. For example Voyager, which is a crypto company afaik

There are probably more companies owing bitcoin and we dont know. For example, Elon musk Is interested in btc. Tesla or SpaceX may own some but we dont know.
There is a pseudo anonymity in bitcoin, so people may be holding and we eont know.

[disconnectme]

Good work by the OP but I believe there are some companies holding Bitcoin that are yet to disclose their holdings, I am not surprise about this because if you look at the growth potential in Crypto as compared to Stock market there is a huge gap, though the risk is also high in Crypto but for me it worth the bet.

[gentlemand]

Yikes!  That might sound like a positive thing for bitcoin, but it kind of scares me.  Just imagine if just a couple of those companies needed to dump their bitcoin holdings onto the market all at once--I would hope that they'd work out private deals instead of using exchanges, but who knows?

I can't see any heavyweight player ever going anywhere near any exchange. There's no depth and not enough appetite for the amounts they'd want to offload. Every time giant amounts have turned up like the Silk Road coins or Cumberland Mining's offer for all of the Gox coins, we get a glimpse of the OTC dark side. It'll be ready for any of this too.

[dothebeats]

This is somewhat a good thing right now, but long-term implications are quite scary and doesn’t seem to be that inviting. If these companies are pooling such large assets into their fund management, once they need to liquidate some assets for something important, those bitcoins might be off the shelf and be sold in one massive transaction. Of course there are OTC trades to limit such things from happening but if the spot market prices are better than that offered by the OTC platform then you know what happens next.

To think that publicly-traded companies are open to accepting such gambles in their asset management is really amusing. They might not see bitcoin as a currency, but as an asset they’re definitey spot on.

[GeorgeJohn]

This is my first time to hear about Grayscale, voyager and argo investment platform, I don't really know that the two platform exist and bitcoin can be invested on it, I really thanks op for research towards these, i believe all these, is very transparent for investment because of these are developed by scammers which we can't predict the sincere platform for better investment via bitcoin.

[AjithBtc]

These public holdings of private companies leading to a whooping 2.85% of the total supply is good. This will strengthen the market, but the same should be limited within particular range. Already the market is manipulated by the whales, and with the massive holdings these companies join together to manipulate and profit out of it. This should not happen, because the vision of Satoshi to have bitcoin is freedom from third party intervention.

[erikoy]

Mostly companies are not holding bitcoin for themselves because it can be risky on their part rather they are just he one to channel clients order and demand. With that they will going to earn through additional payment fee acting as third party in return to secure transaction process.

Here in our place we have registered and license company that are allowed to operate the buy and sell of bitcoin and other altcoins. Yet, I can see high difference between the market price here and the price bitcoin posted in coinmarketcap.com site which make it more difficult to trade due to high price when buying and low price when selling. They got huge profit when you get to transact or trade in them.

[davis196]

Great infographic.
I've heard news about crypto companies like Coinbase and Nexo,which are about to launch their IPOs and become public.Maybe they will join this list too.
The first step is companies outside the cryptosphere to buy more Bitcoins.The second step will be actual crypto companies to launch IPOs and get their stocks listed on Wall Street and other stock exchange markets around the world.Perhaps this is the way for fiat and crypto markets to merge into one market.

[Lorence.xD]

Yikes!  That might sound like a positive thing for bitcoin, but it kind of scares me.  Just imagine if just a couple of those companies needed to dump their bitcoin holdings onto the market all at once--I would hope that they'd work out private deals instead of using exchanges, but who knows?

Aside from the fear of bitcoin being held by an increasingly large number of companies, I'm amazed that this is actually happening and I certainly would not have predicted corporations would start buying up bitcoin to hold as cash reserves/investment/whatever. 

So 2.85% held by these companies.  How much do the Winklevii twins hold?  And I can't even remember how much is in Satoshi's wallet, percentage-wise.  Makes me wonder how many individual bitcoin holders there really are out there.

That was my reaction when I saw a lot of posts and articles about this companies buying crypto as a reserve. They have the ability to inflate the prices now and it is a terrifying possibility. Pretty sure individual hodlers are the only ones who will suffer in this particular problem. In the back of my mind, I am hoping that less companies get their interest in stocking bitcoin.

[Febo]

13 companies are holding around 2.85% of the total supply of Bitcoin.

Had anyone asked yourself why they suddenly a of them starting announcing they bought them? Why they dont keep the old strategy buying a share and stay quiet. I never heard them talk they bought a Tesla share. But I am sure they have them.  To me it looks totally like a pump and dump situation. Whales are accumulating when price is cheap. And at the moment price start rising so they cant buy cheap anymore. But anyway their bags are quiet full already, they start shilling that coin so it pumps and then dumping start. Similar happened in first half of 2019.

[Twentyonepaylots]

I'm amazingly surprise with these list of companies who actually holds bitcoin there's only two emotion I am feeling right now, one is excited who's company is going to be the next in the list, But I'm afraid that it will be the start of centralizing ( slightly ) the bitcoin. From any moment, if every government turns their back with cryptocurrencies these companies will be force to sell it all out leaving the whole market in awe.

[notblox1]

if every government turns their back with cryptocurrencies these companies will be force to sell it all out leaving the whole market in awe.

No government has ever turned their face to any cryptocurrency, so there is not need to fear of them turning their back, but they just can't fight against Bitcoin, so only thing they can do is to make more regulations.
They are probably thinking like this - If you can't beat them, then better join them.
Companies invest in many things not only in Bitcoin, so they are not stupid to crash the market like that and even if they want to do taht it would not be so easy.

Had anyone asked yourself why they suddenly a of them starting announcing they bought them? Why they dont keep the old strategy buying a share and stay quiet. I never heard them talk they bought a Tesla share. But I am sure they have them.  To me it looks totally like a pump and dump situation. Whales are accumulating when price is cheap. And at the moment price start rising so they cant buy cheap anymore. But anyway their bags are quiet full already, they start shilling that coin so it pumps and then dumping start. Similar happened in first half of 2019.

What you saying is illegal for them.
Companies are not like bunch of guys who smoke joints and degen trade like that all day.

[verita1]

Grayscale helps investors create investments in cryptocurrencies, the team is convinced as well as us that Bitcoin is giving a golden opportunity in the new digital age.
They have an experienced group ready to help Accredited investors dive into crypto and therefore how important it is to Bitcoin. This is a Twitter account that you should follow to be more informed, like that of its founder Barry Silbert.

https://twitter.com/Grayscale/

https://twitter.com/barrysilbert/

[exstasie]

Yikes!  That might sound like a positive thing for bitcoin, but it kind of scares me.  Just imagine if just a couple of those companies needed to dump their bitcoin holdings onto the market all at once--I would hope that they'd work out private deals instead of using exchanges, but who knows?

I can't see any heavyweight player ever going anywhere near any exchange. There's no depth and not enough appetite for the amounts they'd want to offload.

.....unless of course, their intention is to move the price. There are plenty of whales trying to push the spot market around. That's not to say they are always successful, but they certainly try.

Had anyone asked yourself why they suddenly a of them starting announcing they bought them? Why they dont keep the old strategy buying a share and stay quiet.

With Microstrategy, they were quiet, until they were done accumulating. After their orders were all filled, their motivations obviously changed. Now they'd be happy to see BTC pump.

With Square, I think Jack Dorsey really wants to be on the cutting edge of Bitcoin adoption and development, and publicly so. If public companies are going to be accumulating BTC reserves, he won't be left behind.