The dominoes are falling: Another NASDAQ-listed firm just bought Bitcoin

NASDAQ-listed Marathon Patent Group just announced it had purchased 4,812.66 Bitcoin in a $150 million aggregate deal.

The firm’s CEO and Chairman Merrick Okamoto said the move puts Marathon in contention with investors seeking Bitcoin exposure. But just as relevant, Okamoto also referred to Bitcoin’s hedge properties, which he sees as vital for the company’s long-term success.

“By purchasing $150 million worth of Bitcoin, we have accelerated the process of building Marathon into what we believe to be the de facto investment choice for individuals and institutions who are seeking exposure to this new asset class. We also believe that holding part of our Treasury reserves in Bitcoin will be a better long-term strategy than holding US Dollars, similar to other forward-thinking companies like MicroStrategy.”

Marathon Patent Group mines cryptocurrencies from a mining facility in Hardin, in the western U.S. state of Montana. They also operate from a co-hosted site in North Dakota.

Public traded firms that hold Bitcoin

Marathon joins a small but growing group of public listed firms that hold Bitcoin as a treasury strategy.

Excluding Marathon, these companies hold a total of 150k BTC with a current valuation of $4.7 billion. The biggest holder is MicroStrategy, which accounts for just over a third of this total.

In August 2020, MicroStrategy became the first public firm to invest significant treasury assets into Bitcoin. It has since added to its BTC reserves through a $650 million company bond issue. And again, more recently, with another $10 million purchase.

Since joining the crypto bandwagon, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor has become known as a Bitcoin evangelist. He has spoken numerous times about his reasons and decision-making process. All of which can be summed up as a belief in the potential of Bitcoin to eat the entire market cap of all other asset classes.

MicroStrategy to share its playbook

Since August 2020, Bitcoin is up +190%, while MicroStrategy’s stock is up +280%.

What many skeptics considered a risky move on the part of MicroStrategy has, in retrospect, worked out well for Saylor. And this is an observation that hasn’t escaped the attention of CEOs and executives from all over the globe.

Speaking about the Bitcoins for Corporations virtual event, scheduled for February 3, Saylor said thousands of attendees have registered to learn MicroStrategy’s playbook.

“They all want to figure out how to plug bitcoin into their balance sheet or their PNL. We’re going to publish our playbook, all of our accounting guidance, our legal guidance, all the work we did over the course of months to get ready to do this as a publicly traded company. And we’re going to open source it, making it available to everybody with the thought of saving them millions of dollars in weeks or months to make this an easier transition.”

Marathon wasn’t the first company to add Bitcoin to its books. But based on Saylor’s efforts, it won’t be the last either.

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