Thomas Daniels
Despite mounting evidence supporting Bitcoin as a treasury asset, Meta’s board decisively rejected a proposal to evaluate BTC for its reserves—highlighting that major technology firms remain cautious.
Simon Butterfill, Head of Research at CoinShares, underscored the accelerating corporate interest in Bitcoin, stating, “the pace of adoption is accelerating.” Strategy—the publicly traded firm formerly known as MicroStrategy—pioneered this approach in August 2020, designating Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve. Yet, Meta’s shareholders voted against a similar evaluation 1,221 to 1, a result mirrored by Microsoft’s rejection of a comparable measure in December 2024.
Corporate treasuries are designed to support short-term obligations, emergency expenditures, and routine operations—typically held in liquid, stable assets such as cash, money market funds, or three-month U.S. Treasury bills. Meta reported $72 billion in liquid reserves. Bitcoin’s notorious volatility raised concerns, with NYU Professor Aswath Damodaran calling the initiative “lunacy,” questioning the rationale for employing a speculative asset in a reserve context. Duke’s Professor Campbell Harvey echoed these doubts: if investors want BTC exposure, “they can buy it themselves,” arguing that treasury allocations require stability—unlike Bitcoin.
That said, experts like Harvey acknowledge a valid differentiation: corporations may undertake strategic Bitcoin investments (akin to venture stakes), but these should not be conflated with treasury reserves. Strategy’s bold pivot yielded a staggering 2,466 percent stock surge—outpacing notable firms including Nvidia, Tesla, Google, and Microsoft—validating the model for companies willing to embrace risk.
David Tawil, Co‑Founder of ProChain Capital, argues Meta’s massive cash holdings—“always holding cash”—represent an opportunity cost amid inflation. Butterfill highlights that even a modest 3 percent Bitcoin allocation can “double a fund’s Sharpe ratio,” and CoinShares’ survey of $1 trillion in AUM shows digital asset exposure doubled from 1 percent in October 2024 to 1.8 percent by April 2025, reflecting faster-than-expected adoption momentum.
Meta’s shareholder vote—and the dominant 61 percent voting power held by Mark Zuckerberg—may not reflect broader corporate sentiment. As Stefan Padfield of the National Center for Public Policy Research suggests, board and investor divisions span a spectrum—from none to full crypto adoption. The vote arguably reflects resistance to mandated exploration, rather than outright rejection of Bitcoin.
Institutional endorsement is rising: BlackRock has advised allocating up to 2 percent of portfolios to Bitcoin. On June 3, Blockchain Group of Paris disclosed a $68 million BTC treasury purchase; on June 4, Korea’s K Wave Media initiated a $500 million Bitcoin treasury strategy. Over 70 companies have added Bitcoin reserves in 2025, though many may be motivated by market optics rather than long-term conviction.
Among large-cap, non-crypto firms, Tesla remains the exception, though Butterfill believes other major corporations could eventually follow. Notably, Bitcoin’s volatility has recently been lower than that of Meta and broader FAANG stocks—a point often overlooked amid debate.
Ultimately, Meta’s emphatic 1,221:1 vote signals continued prudence among Big Tech. But in an environment of escalating institutional Bitcoin interest—amid improving volatility dynamics and strategic reserve allocation models—the possibility of future adoption remains viable.
