During the historic crypto bull run of 2021, several publicly traded companies increased their exposure to Bitcoin and other digital assets. Large-scale institutional investments and Bitcoin becoming a formally recognized legal tender for the first time in El Salvador were among the defining moments of the bull run, which saw Bitcoin (BTC)’s price rise to a new all-time-high of $69,044.77 on November 10, 2021.
Yet, in just 18 months following Bitcoin’s all-time-high, major institutions considered as cornerstones of the industry, like Voyager, Celsius, and FTX collapsed, sending Bitcoin’s price down 77.4% from its all-time-high, reaching a low of $15,602 on November 9, 2022.
For this study, the “current value” of Bitcoin will be calculated using the daily average price of Bitcoin in July 2023 of $30,090, to examine how the top 10 publicly traded companies with the biggest Bitcoin portfolios are performing relative to their approximated entry price.
How are Publicly Traded Companies with Bitcoin Holdings Performing Today?
Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy, Inc. has the largest Bitcoin holdings of 152,333 BTC and an unrealized return on investment (ROI) of 11.07%, equivalent to $456,712,092 in profits today. Others in the top 10 publicly traded companies holding Bitcoin currently see unrealized profits ranging between 9.79% (Block Inc) and 106.3% (Marathon Digital Holdings). The two companies currently experiencing an unrealized loss on their holdings are NEXON Co. and Tesla, at -48.32% and -5.97% respectively.
The three mining companies, Hut 8 Mining Corp., Riot Platforms, Inc. and Hive Blockchain see the largest unrealized profit per Bitcoin. Given the nature of their cryptocurrency mining businesses, their entry price is effectively $0 per Bitcoin, though this excludes expenses like labor, facilities and electricity costs that go into Bitcoin mining.
Of the seven companies in the top 10 that are not in the crypto mining business, Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA) currently holds the greatest percentage of unrealized profit at 106.3%, going from an approximated entry value of $189,087,000 in 2021 to $390,087,792 today. They have also increased their total Bitcoin holding by 28.94%, going from 10,054 BTC to 12,964 BTC.
Bitcoin Portfolio Movements
Four of the seven companies that have remained in the top 10 since 2021 have added to their total Bitcoin holdings. Of the seven, MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) has added the most BTC to their portfolio since 2021 (22,634 BTC), while the other three have added 2,910 BTC (Marathon Digital Holdings), 10,766 BTC (Coinbase Global, Inc), and 2,237 BTC (Hut 8 Mining Corp.) respectively.
On the contrary, two of the seven (Block and NEXON Co.) have kept their holdings exactly the same since 2021. Hive Blockchain, a Canadian crypto mining company, was the only company that reduced their Bitcoin holdings by selling 759 BTC, a -24.56% reduction from their 2021 holding of 3,091 to 2,332.
Additionally, three new companies have broken into the top 10 publicly traded companies holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets. Galaxy Digital Holdings (12,545 BTC), Tesla (10,500 BTC), and Riot Platforms (7,275 BTC) now rank third, fifth, and eighth in total Bitcoin held.
Tesla’s Cryptocurrency Holdings Fluctuate
Tesla has experienced the greatest fluctuation in their cryptocurrency holdings over the last two years. In February 2021, Elon Musk’s innovative automotive company purchased approximately $1.5 billion USD worth of Bitcoin at an average price of $36,000 per coin. Shortly after introducing Bitcoin onto their balance sheet, Tesla announced cryptocurrency payment options, accepting both Bitcoin and Dogecoin for select products. They have since removed Bitcoin as an approved payment method.
However, in their Q2 2022 financial statement, the company announced that it had sold off 75% of their total holdings for a profit of $64 million, citing environmental concerns and a need to rebalance their assets as their primary reasons. They have held their remaining 25% (approximately 10,500 BTC) without buying or selling anything since.
How Much Bitcoin does MicroStrategy Own?
Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy currently owns 152,333 BTC as of June 27, 2023, worth over $4.5 billion at current prices, according to their Q2 2023 financial reports. Their holdings have increased by 17.45% in the last two years, going from 129,699 BTC in 2021 to 152,333 BTC currently.
As such, they remain the top publicly listed company with the largest Bitcoin portfolio. They executed their only sell-off of the asset to date, selling 704 Bitcoin, on December 22, 2022 at an average BTC price of $16,776 for tax benefits.
By continuing to dollar-cost-average (DCA) into the Bitcoin market, MicroStrategy has managed to acquire a further 0.165% of the total supply of Bitcoin at a much lower cost-per Bitcoin, and now controls 0.725% of the total circulating supply today.
Yet, due to a large number of high volume trades executed in 2021, like purchasing 35,014 BTC at an average price of $50,375—50.42% less than its current price today—MicroStrategy has a relatively low ROI of 11.07%.
Methodology
This study examines the top 10 publicly listed companies with the biggest Bitcoin portfolios by amount of Bitcoin (BTC) held, extracted from reported financial results (10-q, SEDAR filings, press releases, etc.), as of August 3, 2023.
The current Bitcoin value of $30,090.08 was derived by averaging the daily price of Bitcoin at 00:00 UTC in July 2023. All prices stated are in USD.
The number of Bitcoin purchased by each public company is then multiplied by its price at the point of purchase, and compared against the current Bitcoin holdings’ value in July 2023 (# of Bitcoin x $30.09.08).
Many companies do not disclose the exact date and time in which they execute their BTC purchasings. Instead, they typically provide a range of about one or two weeks long. Within this range, they could have either made one large purchase or several smaller purchases. For this reason, we have elected to find the average BTC price during this period, and multiply it by the total BTC purchased within this period, in order to get a reliable approximated entry price for the total purchase.
Galaxy Digital Holdings was the only company that we weren’t able to calculate a reliable approximated entry price value for.
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Curious to know more about which banks are crypto-friendly? Check out this article on the top 50 banks that support crypto trading.
Nicholas Coursel-Stoll is a product marketer and freelance writer. After writing his university thesis on the intersection of NFT technology and the book publishing industry, he became deeply involved in the crypto industry and hasn’t left since. Follow the author on Twitter @nicholascoursel
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