Big Money Bets: Companies Investing In Cryptocurrency

As cryptocurrencies gain popularity, many big companies are investing in them. As of 28 June 2021, 34 public companies held over 213,000 bitcoins, equivalent to US$7.4 billion. Some of the top companies investing in cryptocurrencies include Tesla, Square, MicroStrategy, Coinbase Global, Marathon Digital Holdings, and Riot Platforms. These companies are investing in various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, and are even creating their own cryptocurrencies. The growing interest in cryptocurrencies by major companies is contributing to the legitimization and increasing popularity of this asset class.

Companies investing in Bitcoin

Several big companies have been investing in Bitcoin, with some of the world's largest publicly traded companies holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets. Here are some of the notable companies investing in Bitcoin:

MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy, a prominent business analytics and software company, has been one of the most vocal supporters of Bitcoin. The company's CEO, Michael Saylor, is a strong advocate for Bitcoin, frequently expressing his support through media, conferences, and social media. MicroStrategy made waves in 2020 when it invested $250 million in Bitcoin as a treasury reserve, and it has since continued to invest heavily in the cryptocurrency. As of May 2025, the company holds 214,400 BTC, worth around $14.8 billion, making it one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin.

Tesla

Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer, joined the ranks of companies investing in Bitcoin in December 2020. The company invested "an aggregate of $1.5 billion" in Bitcoin, according to an SEC filing. While Tesla has had an on-off relationship with Bitcoin, selling a portion of its holdings and briefly accepting it as payment for its cars, it still holds a significant amount of Bitcoin on its balance sheet. As of May 2024, Tesla holds 9,720 BTC, worth around $677 million.

Coinbase

Coinbase, one of the most well-known cryptocurrency exchanges, has been investing in Bitcoin. The company went public in April 2021 and has been actively expanding its Bitcoin holdings. As of June 2024, Coinbase holds 9,000 BTC in its treasury, worth just under $642 million.

Block (formerly Square)

Block, a global technology company focused on financial services, has shown a strong interest in Bitcoin. The company's Cash App allows users to easily send, spend, or invest their money in stocks or Bitcoin. Block has also been building for the "Web3" era, indicating its commitment to the cryptocurrency space. While the company has not disclosed the exact amount of Bitcoin it holds, it is reportedly one of the largest corporate investors in Bitcoin.

Galaxy Digital Holdings

Galaxy Digital Holdings, a diversified financial services firm focused on digital assets, cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology, holds a significant amount of Bitcoin. As of June 2024, the company holds 8,100 BTC, worth just under $578 million. The company's founder, Michael Novogratz, is a keen advocate for Bitcoin and has predicted a bright future for the cryptocurrency.

Marathon Digital Holdings

Marathon Digital, a Bitcoin mining company, is also a large holder of Bitcoin. As of May 2024, the company held 17,631 BTC in its corporate treasury, worth around $1.23 billion. Marathon Digital aims to build one of the largest Bitcoin mining operations in North America and has been actively expanding its mining capacity.

These companies represent just a fraction of the growing list of big businesses investing in Bitcoin. As the cryptocurrency market continues to gain traction, it is likely that more companies will follow suit and allocate a portion of their reserves to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Companies investing in Ethereum

Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap and is the largest blockchain network for decentralised applications. It has attracted some of the largest companies in the world, including video game giant Ubisoft and Dutch bank ING.

TD Ameritrade

TD Ameritrade, a broker founded in 1975, has invested in ErisX, a CFTC-regulated spot exchange that uses Ethereum smart contracts to facilitate its trades. The firm has also joined the Chicago DeFi Alliance, a business advisory service for DeFi startups.

Ubisoft

French video game publisher Ubisoft is responsible for some of the biggest triple-A games franchises in the world, including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Watch Dogs. It launched Rabbids Tokens, based on its popular Raving Rabbids series, which are built on Ethereum’s ERC-721 token standard.

ING

ING, a Dutch bank, has worked on Ethereum for years. It is part of several Ethereum initiatives, including Komgo, a project designed to streamline trading documents, and Fnality, an Ethereum-based payments settlement consortium.

Coinbase

Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. and charges transaction fees to buyers and sellers of a wide range of cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum. In 2021, the exchange rolled out Ethereum staking, allowing investors to lock up their Ether and earn rewards.

MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy, a prominent business analytics platform, has adopted Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset. As of September 2021, the firm holds over 105,085 BTC in reserve, equivalent to over US$3.3 billion.

Companies investing in Solana

Solana is a high-performance blockchain platform that facilitates fast, secure, and scalable decentralised applications and cryptocurrencies. It was launched in 2020 by Solana Labs, which was founded by Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal in 2018. The platform has experienced several outages and security issues, including a hack in 2022 that saw $8 million stolen from 9,231 Solana wallets. Despite these setbacks, Solana has attracted interest from several big companies.

In June 2021, Solana Labs sold $314 million worth of its native cryptocurrency, SOL, to a group of funds led by Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital. This investment indicates a strong vote of confidence in Solana's technology and potential.

Additionally, Visa has added support for the Solana blockchain, allowing payments to be sent to merchants using the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC). This integration with Visa, along with payment processors Worldpay, Inc. and Nuvei, further validates Solana's position in the market.

Stripe, the online payment processing giant, has also announced that it will start taking payments with USDC on the Solana blockchain. This integration provides a significant boost to Solana's credibility and usability.

Furthermore, PayPal is expanding its PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin to Solana, leveraging the blockchain's native token extensions. This move by PayPal further showcases the growing adoption of Solana by major financial companies.

Robinhood, a popular investment platform, has also shown interest in Solana by launching Solana staking in Europe, providing users with a new staking option.

While the full list of investors in Solana is not publicly available, the platform has gained significant traction and support from several prominent companies and investors. The investments and integrations mentioned above highlight the potential of Solana's technology and its ability to attract big players in the financial and technology sectors.

Companies investing in Avalanche

Avalanche (AVAX) is a cryptocurrency and blockchain platform that rivals Ethereum. It was launched in 2020 and is known for its speed, versatility, security, affordability, and accessibility. The Avalanche blockchain can reportedly finalise transactions very quickly.

Avalanche has three blockchains, each handling different tasks, which makes it extremely efficient. It can process more than 4,500 transactions per second and finalise a transaction in less than two seconds.

Avalanche is compatible with Ethereum. Tokens can be transferred from Ethereum to Avalanche, and Ethereum smart contracts can be deployed on Avalanche with the same code.

Avalanche has partnered with several big-name companies across the finance and crypto industries, including Mastercard, Deloitte, and BitGo. These partnerships have helped Avalanche grow and improve its platform.

In September 2021, Ava Labs, the company behind Avalanche, received a $230 million investment from a group consisting of Polychain and Three Arrows Capital through the purchase of the AVAX cryptocurrency. This investment helped Ava Labs become one of the most valuable crypto startups.

Avalanche has also attracted projects to its network, with more than 150 projects in the popular decentralised finance (DeFi) space, including:

• DeFi protocol 1inch
• Lending protocol Aave
• DApp discover platform DappRadar
• Crypto-friendly payments company Wyre

With its design and growing ecosystem, Avalanche has the potential for long-term growth. However, it is still a fairly new project in a competitive space, and its value is volatile.

Companies investing in Polygon

Polygon is a platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. In February 2022, Polygon raised $450 million in a Series D funding round, bringing its total funding to $451 million. The funding round was led by Sequoia Capital India, with participation from investors including Tiger Global Management, SoftBank, Galaxy Digital, Variant, Republic, and prominent individuals like Kevin O'Leary and Mark Cuban.

Polygon's ultra-focus on cultivating developers and its skyrocketing popularity have attracted investments from these top venture capitalists. With over 19,000 decentralized apps (dApps) running on Polygon, the platform offers a full suite of solutions for building scalable blockchain applications. Polygon PoS, for example, offers an execution layer with low fees and high transaction throughput secured by the Ethereum mainnet.

Polygon has also committed $1 billion to investments in zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography, a technology expected to resolve network congestion and privacy issues. Polygon ID, a platform offering digital identity worthy of Web3, is one example of ZK tech powering real-world applications.

Polygon's growing suite of products offers developers easy access to scaling and infrastructure solutions, including L2 solutions, sidechains, hybrid solutions, stand-alone and enterprise chains, and data availability solutions. With widespread adoption, Polygon's scaling solutions have hosted 7,000+ applications, processed 1+ billion transactions, secured $5+ billion in assets, and served nearly 130 million unique user addresses.

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