Bitcoin held by public companies passes 1 million BTC amid asset's rising popularity

The total amount of bitcoin held by public companies surpassed 1 million BTC on Thursday, according to BitcoinTreasuries data.

Over the past year, the number of companies seeking to capitalize on bitcoin's steady price growth has been increasing rapidly. Michael Saylor's Strategy is considered the pioneer of the trend, with many other companies also deciding to hold the cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin miners like Mara Holdings and firms such as Metaplanet, Semler Scientific, and GameStop all holding BTC on their balance sheets.

"Despite today's milestone, a number of indicators suggest institutional Bitcoin adoption remains in its infancy," said BitcoinTreasuries President Pete Rizzo. "For context, most major Bitcoin treasury firms have only started to deploy strategies aimed at long-term accumulation, meaning a large portion of raised capital remains yet to be deployed."

Strategy's success, both in terms of its share price growth and the accrued value of the bitcoin it holds, has inspired several other firms to pursue similar strategies. 

Bitcoin treasury numbers keep rising

Bitwise executive Bradley Duke took to social media to comment on the 1-million bitcoin milestone. "That’s about $111 billion locked up by institutions," he said. "The structural imbalance between BTC supply and demand is real and getting more pronounced."

According to BitcoinTreasuries, more than 100 public companies currently hold bitcoin. And the number of companies adopting Bitcoin digital asset treasury (DAT) strategies or simply deciding to hold the cryptocurrency doesn't appear to be slowing down.

In one of the more recent examples, on Tuesday, Nasdaq-listed sales development firm CIMG said it had completed a $55 million raise for purchasing bitcoin.

"As Bitcoin continues to outperform fiat currencies globally, we expect the number of public firms buying and holding Bitcoin to rise, with the asset becoming a larger percentage of the balance sheets of the over 50,000 publicly traded companies globally," Rizzo said.

With a market cap of over $2 trillion, the price of bitcoin was trading at $110,142.10 as of 10:53 a.m. ET on Thursday, according to The Block's price page. Bitcoin is up over 90% in the past year.