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Companies like MicroStrategy, Tesla, and Coinbase have collectively purchased Bits worth billions of dollars. These are the largest whales.
Investor interest in Bit has been growing. Image source: Shutterstock
For years, the idea of publicly-traded companies potentially purchasing Bit as a reserve asset was seen as ridiculous. Bit, the top cryptocurrency, was considered too volatile, too fringe, and unsuitable for any serious business entity to embrace.
However, this taboo has been thoroughly broken, and in recent years, some major institutional investors have started purchasing Bit.
When the cloud computing software company MicroStrategy purchased $425 million worth of Bit in August and September 2020, the floodgates first opened. This was followed by companies including the payment processing company Block and the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla.
According to data from BitcoinTreasuries, publicly-traded companies currently holding Bit account for 2.8% of the total supply of 21 million Bits. Here are the largest holders as of the time of writing.
1. MicroStrategy
MicroStrategy, a well-known business analytics platform, has transformed into a Bit reserve company, adopting Bit as its primary reserve asset.
The company, which produces mobile software and provides cloud-based services, has been aggressively engaged in a Bit buying frenzy, acquiring hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Bit. As of January 2025, it holds 461,000 Bits, worth over $48 billion, accounting for more than 2% of the total Bit supply.
At one point, MicroStrategy's Executive Chairman, Michael Saylor, stated that he was purchasing $1,000 worth of Bit per second. In the company's Q1 2024 earnings call, Saylor claimed that the company's adoption of a "Bit strategy" has resulted in 10 to 30 times the performance of peer software companies in the business intelligence space.
Unlike typical executives who avoid discussing personal investments, Saylor has publicly stated that he has personally purchased 17,732 Bits - currently worth over $1.85 billion - and still holds these Bits as of September 2024. This represents a turnaround for MicroStrategy's co-founder Saylor, who had publicly stated in 2013 that Bit's days were numbered.
"We are in the early stages of the rapid institutional adoption of digital assets (in the form of Bit)," Saylor said in the company's Q1 2024 earnings call. He added that in the future, Bit will not compete with other cryptocurrencies, but rather with "gold, art, stocks, real estate, bonds, and other forms of wealth storage tools" in wealth creation, wealth preservation, and capital markets.
MicroStrategy plans to purchase more Bit in the near future, currently raising a $42 billion fund to achieve this goal, and is pitching the idea to other publicly-traded companies - such as Microsoft, although shareholders ultimately voted against the proposal.
2. Marathon Digital Holdings Inc.
The Bit mining company Marathon Digital, unsurprisingly, is also one of the major Bit holders, with 44,394 Bits in its corporate reserves, worth over $4.6 billion at current prices, according to the latest update in December 2024.
The company aims to build the "largest Bit mining operation in North America and operate at the lowest energy cost," initially as a patent-holding company (and often referred to as a "patent troll") before transitioning into a cryptocurrency mining business.
As of July 2024, Marathon Digital operates over 250,000 Bit mining rigs, capable of producing 31.5 EH/s of hashrate, with an average operating hashrate of 26.3 EH/s.
The company noted that with the 2024 Bit halving event, it is accelerating its expansion plans to "mitigate the impact of the Bit reward halving with each successful block mined." The company had previously stated that it plans to double its mining operations by 2024.
In Q3 2024, the company's revenue grew 35% year-over-year to $132 million, up from $98 million in the previous quarter. Recently, it raised nearly $2 billion through convertible bonds, with most of the funds used to purchase Bit.
3. Riot Platforms, Inc.
Another cryptocurrency mining company, Riot Platforms, headquartered in the US, holds 17,722 Bits, worth approximately $1.85 billion at current prices.
The company's valuation skyrocketed from less than $200 million in 2020 to over $6 billion in 2021, followed by an aggressive expansion plan. In April 2021, Riot Platforms spent $650 million to build a 1 gigawatt Bit mining facility in Texas, and further expanded in 2022, later rebranding to Riot Platforms to diversify its business model.
In 2024, the company warned shareholders that the Bit halving event "may not guarantee" an improvement in its profitability, and while Riot's stock briefly spiked to $18 at the beginning of the year, it gradually declined and has been fluctuating below $10 since August until late October. Subsequently, as Bit mining stocks and the broader cryptocurrency market saw a resurgence following Donald Trump's announced election victory, Riot's stock price also rose.
Additionally, Riot reached a settlement with Bit mining company Bitfarms, resolving a dispute over Riot's attempted hostile takeover of the competitor in 2024.
4. Galaxy Digital Holdings
The cryptocurrency-focused investment bank Galaxy Digital Holdings, according to November 2024 investor release data, holds approximately 11,242 Bits, valued at $711 million as of September 30, 2024. At the current Bit price, these Bits are worth around $1.18 billion.
The company, founded by Michael Novogratz in January 2018, provides asset management and digital infrastructure services, aiming to help institutional investors gain exposure to Bit, Ethereum, and other digital assets.
Novogratz, unsurprisingly, is a vocal Bit supporter, stating in March 2024 that Bit will never again fall below $50,000, and predicting a few months later that Bit will surge to $100,000 by the end of the year.
Galaxy Digital is one of the firms managing a US spot Bit ETF, which the SEC approved in January 2024. Recently, Novogratz stated that Trump's election as president was "the most important day in the history of cryptocurrency."
5. Hut 8 Corp
The Canadian Bit mining company Hut 8, according to the latest update in December 2024, holds 10,096 Bits, worth over $1 billion at current prices.
In June 2021, the company listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol HUT, and in its filing with the SEC, Hut 8 stated that it is "committed to increasing its Bit holdings and value to enhance shareholder value."
The company also explained that it generates fiat currency revenue by leveraging its self-mined and held Bit reserves "through yield account arrangements with leading digital asset prime brokerages."
In November 2023, the company merged with another mining company, US Bitcoin, with the combined entity describing itself as "an energy infrastructure company focused on Bit mining and data centers." These mining hubs are located in six sites across Alberta, Texas, and New York, with 7.5 EH/s of self-mining hashrate.
Last June, the company announced a $150 million investment plan to expand its AI computing needs, and within a few weeks of the presidential election, its stock price nearly doubled, making the company's market value exceed $2 billion at the time of writing this article.
6. Tesla
A Tesla Cybertruck. Image source: Shutterstock.
Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla joined the ranks of companies holding Bit in December 2020, revealing in its SEC filing that the company had invested a "total of $1.5 billion" to purchase Bit.
Tesla sold 10% of its Bit holdings in the first quarter of 2021; according to CEO Elon Musk, this move was "to prove the liquidity of Bit as an alternative to cash".
The company's entry into the Bit market was announced after months of speculation, with Musk discussing Bit on Twitter (now X). At the end of 2020, MicroStrategy's Saylor had proposed to share his "Bit investment playbook" with Musk and believed that a shift to Bit would bring "a $100 billion benefit" to Tesla shareholders.
However, Musk and Tesla's relationship with Bit is not set in stone. After announcing in March 2021 that Tesla would accept Bit as payment for its products and services, just two months later, Musk suddenly announced that the company would no longer accept Bit as a payment method.
Musk stated that due to the "rapid increase in the use of fossil fuels in Bit mining and transactions," the company will not sell its Bit holdings and will consider using Bit for transactions again after Bit mining "transitions to more sustainable energy." He later clarified that the company will resume using Bit for transactions once miners use 50% clean energy for mining.
In July 2022, the company revealed in its Q2 2022 financial update that it had sold "approximately 75%" of its Bit, with its balance sheet showing $936 million in digital asset sales. In a call with analysts, Musk stated that the Bit sale was to strengthen cash flow in the face of COVID lockdown uncertainties.
As of January 2025, according to data from bitcointreasuries.org, Tesla holds 9,720 Bit in its portfolio, worth over $1 billion at current prices. Whether Tesla will further increase its Bit holdings in the future remains unknown, but Musk has stated that "he is willing to increase Bit holdings in the future".
Musk may be best known for his passionate support of Doge. Tesla has already supported the purchase of certain merchandise with Doge, and Musk currently leads the Dogecoin Efficiency Department (DOGE), leading to the creation of a new meme coin and a rapid rise in the Doge price.
7. Coinbase Global, Inc.
Perhaps the most well-known crypto company on this list, the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase went public on the Nasdaq through a direct listing in April 2021, a milestone event.
Prior to the listing, Coinbase disclosed in February 2021 that it held $230 million in Bit on its balance sheet. As of the Q3 2024 10-Q filing, it holds 9,363 Bit in its corporate reserves, worth approximately $980 million at current prices.
The company's stock quickly rebounded after the 2024 presidential election, approaching its previous all-time high, and continues to innovate in the Bit space, recently announcing the launch of its own Bit-wrapped product, cbBTC. Coinbase has also restarted its Bit lending service.
8. CleanSpark
U.S. Bit mining company CleanSpark holds 9,297 Bit, worth approximately $975 million at current prices.
Prior to the 2024 Bit halving event, the company expanded its operations, spending $19.8 million to acquire three Bit mines in Mississippi, adding 2.4 EH/s of computing power. The company also added a third mine in Dalton, Georgia, increasing its computing power by 0.8 EH/s.
In June 2024, CleanSpark disclosed that in May 2024, it mined a total of 417 Bit and stated that in the first full production month after the halving, it "exceeded industry expectations". The company also revealed plans to further expand to a new mine in Wyoming "in the coming days".
Like its peers, CleanSpark's stock price nearly doubled in the weeks after the election, making the company's market value exceed $3 billion at the time of writing.
9. Block, Inc.
Along with Tesla, the parent company of Square, Block, invested $50 million in Bit in October 2020, igniting the fuse for institutional investment in Bit.
As of the end of Q3 2024, the company holds 8,363 Bit, worth approximately $876 million at current prices.
Given that CEO Jack Dorsey is a passionate supporter of Bit, even running his own Bit node and describing the Bit whitepaper as "poetry," this investment may not come as a surprise.
In the initial investment, the company described it as "a part of Square's ongoing commitment to invest in Bit" and noted that "the company plans to assess the overall proportion of Bit investments relative to other investments on an ongoing basis."
Additionally, the company has invested in Bit technology, launching its own Bit wallet and developing Bit mining ASIC chips. In April 2024, Square's payment service subsidiary announced that merchants using its Cash App product will be able to automatically convert a portion of their daily sales to Bit.
In May 2024, the company announced that it will reinvest 10% of the profits from its Bit-related products and services into Bit, implementing a regular dollar-cost averaging (DCA) purchase plan.
10. Bitcoin Group SE
The Germany-based venture capital firm Bitcoin Group SE rounds out the list, with its recent financial updates indicating a Bit holding of approximately 3,678 Bit, worth around $385 million at current prices.
The company's investments include the cryptocurrency exchange Bitcoin.de and Futurum Bank, which merged in October 2020 to form "Germany's first crypto bank".
This move came after the German parliament decided to allow banks to sell and store cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin Group SE's managing director Marco Bodewein emphasizing the opportunity to introduce institutional investors to the "high returns and security features of cryptocurrencies".
Germany sold off a large portion of its seized Bit over the summer.
Additional reporting by Daniel Phillips
Editor's Note: This article was first published in July 2022 and updated with new details as of January 26, 2025.
