Over $3.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, held by public companies

Bitcoin managed once again to attract a lot of interest over the past weeks, following its incredible bull run. And it appears that not just common investors were lured into putting some money into the digital asset, but also public companies.

According to technology researcher Kevin Rooke, the BTC holdings of public companies skyrocketed over the past two years, as they now hold over $3.6 billion worth of cryptocurrency.

A spectacular growth over the past 12 months

Back in 2019, public companies owned roughly 2,000 BTC, while over the past 12 months, this amount increased to over 105,000 BTC!

“Today, 19 public companies hold this amount on their balance sheets, valued at over $3.6 billion,” said Kevin Rooke.

MicroStrategy is the biggest holder of them all, with almost 71,000 BTC in their portfolio, followed by GalaxyDigital Holding, trailing way behind them with over 16,400 Bitcoin. In third place comes Square Inc., the largest company in terms of market cap on this list, with roughly 4,700 BTC.

But why the increased interest?

There’s no doubt that the interest in Bitcoin has significantly grown lately and the fact that just public companies alone have accumulated around 85,000 BTC isn’t that much of a surprise from multiple points of view.

The institutional demand for Bitcoin keeps growing, mostly due to the expectations that the token has what it takes to evolve into a proper, established alternative to gold.

Yes, rising inflation and liquidity injections from central banks shouldn’t be ignored, neither those coming from investors and corporations, who are seeking alternative ways of hedging their holdings and portfolios.

“Inflation robs your life’s work. The Argentine peso has lost 50% of its value against USD in the past 3 years. And that’s saying a lot given the current state of the U.S. dollar. No wonder search interest in Bitcoin is going through the roof,” Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss said.