Two More Public Companies Just Added Bitcoin to Their Balance Sheets

Two publicly traded companies announced big Bitcoin buys this week as a raft of firms have begun emulating MicroStrategy’s crypto treasury model.

Los Angeles-based social media marketing company Thumzup Media said Tuesday in a statement that it purchased roughly $1 million in Bitcoin—its first major foray into the token.

Meanwhile, KULR Technology Group, a San Diego-based firm that provides energy storage solutions for aerospace and defense companies, bought $21 million worth of the digital asset, bringing its Bitcoin treasury’s balance to $42 million, according to the firm’s announcement on Sunday. The firm made its first purchase less than two weeks ago.

The companies are each aiming to hold up to 90% of their liquid assets in Bitcoin, with Thumzup also planning to begin paying contractors in Bitcoin in the coming weeks.

Thumzup’s stock remained largely flat at around $4 in the hours following its Bitcoin announcement, and its shares were trading 7% lower in the 24-hour period ending at writing time. KULR’s stock price is $2.78 as of writing time, down 27% since it said it was adding more Bitcoin to its balance sheet. 

The businesses are the latest companies to take inspiration from the Michael Saylor-fronted MicroStrategy, which has seen the value of its now-$42 billion stockpile of the world’s oldest cryptocurrency skyrocket in recent months amid additional purchases and market surges.

Bitcoin hit an all-time-high price above $108,000 in mid-December. And while its price has since fallen—it is trading at $95,000 as of writing time, according to CoinGecko data—that downturn hasn’t stopped companies from embracing the digital asset.

Late last year, three publicly traded biotech companies—Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Hoth Therapeutics, and Enlivex Therapeutics—similarly announced their first-ever plans to pour up to $1 million each into Bitcoin, aligning them with long-time holders such as Tesla and Coinbase. The biotech firms said they were motivated to begin stockpiling Bitcoin due to increased support for the asset among investors and politicians. 

Bitcoin’s champions now include the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock—which launched its first spot Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. last year—in addition to President-elect Donald Trump, who ran on a pro-crypto platform and made various promises towards the industry. 

Japanese investment firm Metaplanet, which is aiming to amass a 10,000 Bitcoin war chest, also made its single-largest Bitcoin buy to date just last month. Around the same time, Hong Kong-based gaming firm Boyaa Interactive said in December it would swap its Ethereum tokens for nearly $50 million in Bitcoin in a major strategy shift.

Edited by Andrew Hayward