Data from one of the world’s leading on-chain analytics expert, Willy Woo, who goes by the name, ‘Woonomic’ and the curator of the Woo Bull on-chain analytics chart platform, reveals that publicly traded organization increased their BTC holdings by 123.75% from over 96,000 BTC at the beginning of the year, to end the year, holding over 216,000 BTC.
This increase in 2021 shows a growing interest in the asset class by corporations and their willingness to hold BTC on their balance sheet. In 2020, BTC holdings surged by 400% according to data from technology researcher Kevin Rooke, in which at the beginning of 2020, public companies held approximately 20,000 BTC.
In a tweet, Willy Woo stated, “Since MicroStrategy’s ‘Bitcoin for Corporations’ conference in February 2021, public companies holding significant BTC have gained market share from spot ETFs as a way to access BTC exposure on public equity markets.”
Read: Bitcoin reclaims trillion dollar asset status
What you should know
The data shows that digital currency asset management company, Grayscale has gained the highest market share by a landslide, at 645,199 BTC by the end of 2021. This took up 71% of the wider market, as holdings of all spot ETFs and corporations together totalled 903,988 BTC, according to the chart.
MicroStrategy, ran by outspoken Bitcoin enthusiast, Michael Saylor, is a leading business intelligence firm and is known for being particularly bullish on BTC, owning almost $6 billion in crypto assets. Saylor leads the pack as his company now holds 124,391 BTC. This accounts for 57% of the total BTC holdings by corporations. In 2021, the firm grew its BTC holdings by 76.51% as it started 2021 holding a little over 70,000 BTC.
Just before the year ended, Saylor’s firm purchased a further 1,914 BTC worth $94 million. The company has gained more than $2.1 billion in profit since its initial BTC purchase in August 2020.
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Tesla, the electric car company ran by the world’s richest man and dogecoin enthusiast, Elon Musk, began holding BTC on the 31st of January 2021 with a total of 42,902 BTC. However, it ended the year holding 37,846 BTC, down approximately 11%. During the year Elon, who announced he had no intention of selling the company’s BTC holdings, announced later that it sold some BTC to “prove liquidity of the cryptocurrency.”
Conclusion
Other corporations holding BTC includes Galaxy Digital, Square, Marathon Digital, Argo Blockchain, Exodus Movement, Coinbase, Hut 8 Mining, Riot Blockchain, Bitfarms, DigitalX, Neptune Digital Assets, Cypherpunk Holdings, Fortress Technologies, and Mercado Libre.
BTC trades $46,900, down 0.55% for the day, as of the time of this writing.
