Original author: Pzai, Foresight News
As the United States has made significant progress in the compliance of Bitcoin investment, more and more companies have become interested in crypto assets. With MicroStrategys successful experience, the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) officially recommended that Microsoft invest 1% of its profits in Bitcoin to hedge against inflation.
On December 10, Microsofts major shareholders voted against including Bitcoin in the companys balance sheet. As a result, market sentiment has been hit to a certain extent. As of press time, Bitcoin is trading at $97,304, a pullback from the highs of the previous few days. Is the crypto booster favored by all US stock investors? And why do shareholders refuse strategic investments in emerging assets?
Interest
In October of this year, Microsoft included Bitcoin investment-related matters in the shareholder voting meeting in the SEC filing, which was proposed by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank in the United States. The board of directors recommended in the document that shareholders vote against the proposal, and believed that the proposal was not necessary (to implement) because the companys management has carefully considered the proposal and also stated that volatility is a factor to consider when evaluating cryptocurrency investments. Two months later, Bitcoin once again surpassed history, and MicroStrategy, also a US-listed company, has become a dark horse in the US stock market through its own strategy of embracing Bitcoin, and its stock price has soared rapidly in a short period of time.
It is precisely because of his own successful experience that MicroSrategy CEO Michael Saylor tried to convince Microsoft shareholders to support NCPPRs proposal. Saylor emphasized the value of Bitcoin as digital capital and pointed out that if Microsoft allocates part of its assets to Bitcoin, it may bring significant growth in stock prices. In addition, NCPPR also played a video claiming that Microsoft should not miss the next wave of technology brought by Bitcoin and demonstrated the value that holding Bitcoin may bring.
Despite this, Microsofts major shareholders chose to support the boards opinion, believing that including Bitcoin in the companys balance sheet is not in the long-term interests of shareholders. They are worried that the high volatility of Bitcoin will have a negative impact on the companys financial stability, and are unsure whether such an investment can guarantee a positive return for investors. Proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis also pointed out that experts generally believe that it is not guaranteed that investing in cryptocurrencies will increase the overall return on the portfolio.
Market sentiment
In the market, traders are generally pessimistic about the decision of Microsoft shareholders. On Polymarket, the probability of agreeing to the Bitcoin investment proposal fluctuates around 10% to 20%.
In addition to Microsofts attempts in the U.S. stock market, some companies are also actively trying to include Bitcoin in corporate reserve assets, such as Tesla, Riot Platform, Galaxy Digital, etc. If Microsoft takes the same approach, it will become the largest Bitcoin holder by market value. Bernstein analysts said that large technology companies have a lot of current liquidity that can be deployed through Bitcoin, but given the dominance of their respective core businesses, Bitcoin may become an insubstantial part of corporate asset strategies, while small companies with cash surpluses and weak core businesses can follow the MicroStrategy model.
It is worth noting that Microsofts two major institutional investors, Vanguard and BlackRock, played an important role in this vote. As one of Microsofts largest shareholders, the attitudes of these institutional investors have a decisive influence on the final result. At the same time, BlackRock itself also provides crypto ETF products to customers and is active in the crypto investment market. However, in Microsofts strategic choice, these shareholders still prefer stable assets, indicating that although some large financial institutions have begun to get involved in the cryptocurrency market, they are still cautious about the risks of strategically holding such assets.
In summary, the results of Microsofts shareholder vote reflect the dilemma that American companies are currently facing when considering whether to get involved in the field of cryptocurrency: on the one hand, as the price of Bitcoin continues to rise and the effects of Trumps coming to power, more and more companies are beginning to accept it as a legitimate investment tool and reserve asset; on the other hand, due to the security and stability of corporate funds, there are corresponding restrictions on the scale of investment. In this case, Microsoft chose to maintain its existing investment strategy and continue to focus on more stable and predictable investment options, but this vote has sent a strong signal to the crypto market and raised expectations for future crypto adoption.
