Strategy became the first publicly traded company to adopt Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset in August 2020, but not many major tech firms have followed since.
Treasury reserves, sometimes called cash reserves, are held by corporations to fund short-term or emergency obligations. These are typically cash or cash equivalents like money market funds or three-month US Treasury bills.
The social media giant Meta keeps $72 billion in liquid assets in its reserve. But at its annual meeting on May 28, shareholders turned back a proposal to assess whether Bitcoin (BTC) might qualify as a future treasury reserve asset. The proposal was dismissed by a ratio of 1,221 to 1.
That rejection in itself is not so surprising. Despite growing corporate Bitcoin adoption, Big Tech and most mainstream corporations remain cautious. US tech giant Microsoft also voted down similar proposals in December 2024.
Meta’s failed Bitcoin proposal, rejected by an overwhelming majority, raises questions about institutional readiness to adopt crypto.
Bitcoin’s volatility weakens its treasury asset case
This could all just be a misunderstanding. Crypto partisans may have failed to realize that corporate treasuries are more like emergency funds: to be used in the event of natural disasters or pandemics or to support day-to-day business operations, but not as a platform for speculative investing, said New York University professor Aswath Damodaran.
“I think it is lunacy,” he told Cointelegraph, discussing the recent Meta proposal put forth by Bitcoin advocate Ethan Peck. Damodaran said that he couldn’t think of “a semblance of a reason for why this is a good idea.”
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Damodaran has a reputation as a crypto skeptic. But even Duke University finance professor.
Campbell Harvey, who has written a book on decentralized finance and is mostly positive about the future of blockchain technology, was dismissive of the Bitcoin treasury initiative, telling Cointelegraph:
“If Meta investors want to own Bitcoin, they can buy it themselves. It is not clear what role cryptos play in any treasury function unless the company is doing business in a crypto like Bitcoin.”
Stablecoins properly qualify as a treasury reserve, as they are typically liquid and pegged to an underlying asset, such as the US dollar, Harvey said, comparing Bitcoin to a highly volatile instrument that isn’t suitable for corporate reserves.
Strategy’s successful Bitcoin blueprint has inspired other companies to jump on the bandwagon, Harvey suggested. Strategy’s MSTR has notched a 2,466% stock increase since the tech company made BTC its primary reserve asset, outperforming companies like Nvidia, Tesla, Google and Microsoft.
“But Strategy has bet the company in transforming itself into an active Bitcoin fund,” said Harvey, adding:
“If a company wants to make a strategic investment in Bitcoin just like they might make a strategic investment in a startup, I have no problem with that. It is a risky venture investment, and companies do this all the time. Just don’t call this a treasury asset.”
Still, the Metas of the world often hold billions of dollars in their cash reserves, and that money is often just parked there, earning little interest. For professional investors, that’s something like a sin.
“Meta is sitting with billions in cash constantly,” David Tawil, president and co-founder of ProChain Capital, told Cointelegraph. “They’re always holding cash.” They’d be better off putting some of it in Bitcoin, both for diversification purposes, but also to insulate them against an inflating dollar.
James Butterfill, head of research at digital asset investment firm CoinShares, told Cointelegraph that a 3% Bitcoin allocation can double a fund’s Sharpe ratio, a gauge used to assess risk-adjusted performance.
CoinShares’ own survey, which tracks $1 trillion in assets under management (AUM), shows that the average digital asset allocation rose to 1.8% in April 2025 from 1% in October 2024. “The pace of adoption is accelerating faster than we had anticipated,” Butterfill added.
Sign of a more cautious Bitcoin approach
Meta’s shareholder vote may reflect a broader sense of caution among mainstream corporate and institutional investors when it comes to Bitcoin. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg controls 61% of Meta’s voting power, so this isn’t necessarily a representative sample of corporate America.
Stefan Padfield, executive director of the Free Enterprise Project at the National Center for Public Policy Research, told Cointelegraph that corporate boards and managers are likely as divided on Bitcoin as economists and politicians, “so it’s not surprising that we’re seeing firms — including tech firms — take differing positions on the ‘none-some-lots’ spectrum when it comes to Bitcoin.”
And maybe there is less here than meets the eye. Padfield added:
“While the proposal is merely requesting consideration of Bitcoin, it may still be rejected simply because managers and investors don’t want to be told what to do in this space.”
Meanwhile, some of the world’s largest asset managers like Fidelity and BlackRock have warmed to crypto. BlackRock recently recommended that investors consider putting up to 2% of their portfolio in Bitcoin for diversification.
Bitcoin treasury initiatives have been ramping up globally. On June 3, Paris-based Blockchain Group announced that it added $68 million in Bitcoin to its corporate treasury. Then on June 4, Korea’s K Wave Media announced plans to raise $500 million to purchase Bitcoin in what it described as a “treasury strategy.”
At least 72 new companies have adopted Bitcoin this year, Butterfill said, though “many of these moves appear to be driven more by a desire to flatter their stock prices rather than a genuine belief in the long-term value of holding Bitcoin on the balance sheet.” A truly strategic allocation requires a long-term mindset, he pointed out.
But what about major corporations whose core business has nothing to do with crypto or blockchain technology? So far, Tesla stands alone among this group, noted Butterfill, adding:
“Given current trends, it’s likely that we’ll eventually see a major large-cap company add Bitcoin to its balance sheet.”
Still, returning to Meta, the 1,221:1 rejection ratio was rather emphatic, no?
Meta shareholders may have overreacted to Bitcoin’s so-called volatility, suggested Butterfill. “Bitcoin has exhibited consistently lower volatility than Meta for over two months now, and this trend holds across the FAANG stocks more broadly,” he said.
Padfield added, “I’m always concerned that people read too much into low [proxy] vote counts. In this case, it may simply be a reflection of a desire to avoid being ‘forced’ to consider Bitcoin than a rejection of Bitcoin itself.”
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