Bitcoin Treasury

Jul 29, 2025 | Updated Jul 29, 2025

A Bitcoin treasury is a strategy where companies hold Bitcoin as a reserve asset on their balance sheet instead of traditional cash or bonds.

What Is a Bitcoin Treasury?

A Bitcoin treasury strategy involves corporations allocating a portion of their cash reserves to Bitcoin rather than holding only traditional assets like cash, bonds, or gold. Companies that adopt this approach view Bitcoin as a store of value that can potentially protect against inflation, while offering the potential for long-term asset appreciation.

This strategy gained prominence when Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) became the first major public company to adopt Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset in 2020. The company’s CEO, Michael Saylor, argued that holding cash was losing value due to inflation, while Bitcoin offered a better long-term store of value. Since then, other companies, including Tesla, Block (formerly Square), Gamestop, and more, have added Bitcoin to their corporate treasuries.

The approach represents a shift from traditional corporate treasury management, which historically focused on capital preservation rather than growth.

How Does a Bitcoin Treasury Work?

Companies implementing Bitcoin treasury strategies may do so by allocating a percentage of their cash reserves to Bitcoin purchases, or, as in Strategy’s case, raising capital through equity sales, new stock issuances, or the sale of convertible bonds or other convertible debt instruments. The allocation can range from a small percentage to, in MicroStrategy’s case, a majority of the company’s assets. These purchases are usually made through established cryptocurrency exchanges or over-the-counter trading desks to minimize market impact.

The Bitcoin is then held in secure custody solutions, often involving hardware wallets, multi-signature security arrangements, or institutional custody services like Ledger Enterprise. Some companies make periodic purchases to dollar-cost average their entry points, while others make large one-time acquisitions based on market conditions.

For more on the challenges that companies can face when forming a Bitcoin treasury, watch this episode of The Ledger Podcast about how Ledger Enterprise helps companies and institutions secure their crypto.