In an effort to integrate digital assets into the organization, a Canadian-based publicly listed company called DeFi Technologies has decided to make BTC its company’s treasury reserve currency. This strategic shift is in sync with the increasing trend of institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies mainly Bitcoin which is on an upswing in the current years.
Canada-based DeFi Technologies, an exchange-traded product (ETP) issuer, and venture capital firm, said it plans to buy 110 Bitcoins (BTC) and use the funds to pay $5 million in debt owed by its subsidiary, Valour. In this announcement, Valour also revealed that is currently managing $607 million of assets as of 31st May 2024.
Investors in DeFi Technologies were happy with the Bitcoin treasury strategy since the company’s share prices rose on the Canadian stock market and the US over-the-counter (OTC) markets. More importantly, at the time of writing this article, the DeFi Technologies shares are trading at a price of $1.57 on U.S. OTC exchanges, which is much higher than the trading range recorded in the previous session 1.16 to $1.40.
This move by DeFi Technologies to adopt Bitcoin as the firm’s treasury reserve is evidence of institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies. This move is similar to what other public trading companies like Semler Scientific, trading under the ticker SMLR+ have recently done, where the firm has announced it will be using Bitcoin as its reserve currency and has bought 581 BTC at the time worth $41 million.
Furthermore, the government institutions are also interested in Bitcoin, as an instrument of investment in their portfolios and treasury. For instance, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), Wisconsin’s pension fund manager has recently revealed that it has invested $164 million in Bitcoin ETFs.
In addition, the pension fund in Japan, the Japanese Government Pension Investment Fund, is the largest in the world. It has commenced a five-year research program aimed at assessing the possibility of incorporating both digital currencies such as Bitcoin and physical bullion such as gold into its investment mix.
It is for this reason that DeFi Technologies and other institutional players are beginning to hold the decentralized currency as a treasury reserve asset. Given the increasing institutional interest in Bitcoin, the demand for Bitcoin ETFs has also grown, and recent data from HODL15 Capital reveals that Bitcoin ETFs have already received two months’ worth of BTC mined in the first week of June. This development goes further in revealing the increasing mainstream adoption of Bitcoin as a currency.
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