5 years of the experiment that changed the history of Bitcoin

On August 11, 2020, Microstrategy “Currently renamed Strategy,” announced the Purchase of 21,454 bitcoins for 250 million dollars.

At the time, the operation was presented as part of a Strategy to protect the capital of the company Faced with global economic uncertainty derived from pandemic. But, in reality, it was a high -risk corporate experiment that would open an unprecedented chapter in recent financial history.

At that time, the market reaction was immediate: as cryptootics reported at the time, the company’s shares rose 14% in a matter of hours. Michael Saylor, its executive director (a character not well known at that time), defended the play describing Bitcoin as “harder, stronger, faster and more intelligent than any money that has preceded it”. Not everyone shared their enthusiasm. For many analysts, it was still a risky maneuver that could go wrong at any time.

What was not known then that this purchase would mark a precedent. For the first time, a public contribution company incorporated Bitcoin as the main reserve asset. Strategy did not do it for impulse: he evaluated for months the resilience of the network, his global acceptance and the strength of his community. That decision, which seemed an isolated case, turned out to be the beginning of a trend that, over time, would expand throughout the world.

Five years later, the panorama is radically different. More than 100 companies that quote on the stock market have followed the Strategy path, integrating Bitcoin into their balance sheets. What began as a defensive response to inflation became a strategy of growth and diversification of reserves.

The following image, provided by the Bitcoin Treasuries portal, shows the 100 main public contribution companies with BTC in its declared balances:

The list includes sectors such as technology, energy, mining, financial services and even entertainment. It is no longer a fashion of Silicon Valley: adoption has spread to Japan, Canada, Australia and several European countries. Today, maintaining Bitcoin in Treasury is interpreted, in certain circles, as a sign of innovation and strategic vision.

The pressure of this corporate and institutional demand is one of the factors that explain the current price of Bitcoin, above $ 120,000, levels never seen before. To the accumulation of companies are added investment funds, banks and insurers, consolidating a new environment in which BTC is no longer only a niche asset, but part of the global financial system.

Besides, Strategy strategy Not only had an impact on the price of Bitcoin, but It gave rise to a different business model: Companies whose stock market is directly linked to the price of BTC. This approach offers multiplied yields in bullish markets, but also implies considerable risks in bearish cycles.

So far, the results have been positive. None of the companies that have adopted this strategy have suffered catastrophic consequences for their exposure to Bitcoin. On the contrary, many have seen how their capitalization has shot in periods of assessment of the asset, attracting both traditional and ecosystem enthusiasts.

Thus, what began as a purchase of 250 million dollars to “protect shareholders” became a turning point for the relationship between Bitcoin and the corporate world. Strategy validated the idea that BTC could take a legitimate place as a reserve asset in companiespromoting a wave of adoption that continues to grow.

Five years later, it is difficult to imagine the Bitcoin market without the presence of public companies that support it in their balance sheets. That operation that in 2020 seemed a lonely commitment ended up becoming the reference model for hundreds of firms worldwide. An experiment that, far from failing, changed forever the rules of the game.