The National Public Policy Research Center — a think tank in Washington DC that supports free markets — has proposed an initiative for Amazon Corp shareholders to consider the company's Bitcoin (BTC) treasury strategy at the April 2025 shareholder meeting.
According to the think tank's letter, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) used to measure inflation is currently at 4.95%, which is a "particularly poor measure" of the actual decline in the value of the currency. The authors suggest that the actual inflation rate may be double the reported CPI figure.
This is severely eroding Amazon's $88 billion in cash and short-term equivalents, the letter emphasizes, and to protect shareholder value, BTC should be used as a hedge against this risk. The National Public Policy Research Center writes:
As of December 6, 2024, the price of Bitcoin has increased 131% year-over-year, outperforming the medium corporate bond by 126%. Over the past five years, the price of Bitcoin has increased 1,246%, outperforming the medium corporate bond by 1,242%."
The authors conclude by proposing that Amazon should allocate at least 5% of its treasury assets to Bitcoin to protect the value of its reserves, even citing the success of MicroStrategy's Bitcoin treasury strategy.
Shareholder proposal for Amazon. Source: Tim Kotzman, Dennis Porter
MicroStrategy inspires organizations to adopt BTC as treasury
MicroStrategy and founder Michael Saylor have popularized the corporate Bitcoin treasury strategy, which is now being adopted by many companies and pension funds.
According to the MicroStrategy Tracker, the amount of Bitcoin the company holds is currently worth over $40 billion — making MicroStrategy around $17 billion in profit.
Current performance of MicroStrategy. Source: MSTR Tracker
Mining company MARA, previously known as Marathon Digital, has followed in MicroStrategy's footsteps and completed a $1 billion 0% convertible note offering in November 2024. MARA used this capital to purchase 6,474 BTC for their corporate treasury.
Artificial intelligence company Genius Group also announced the conversion of its treasury assets to Bitcoin in November. The company has started accumulating its BTC hoard by purchasing 110 BTC at an average price of around $90,932 per coin.
