MicroStrategy, a business intelligence company that offers embedded analytics platforms, cloud-based services, and more, aims to be the first public company to offer bitcoin within its 401(k) programs.
The option is made possible through Fidelity’s announcement today that it would make bitcoin options available in its retirement plans to participating companies, the first major financial firm to offer direct cryptocurrency investment in a savings account. As of 2020, Fidelity made up more than a third of the retirement market, with $2.4 trillion in assets within 401(k)s, according to CoinDesk.
“MicroStrategy looks forward to working with Fidelity Digital Assets (@DigitalAssets) to become the first public company to offer their employees the option to invest in bitcoin as part of our 401(k) program,” tweeted Michael Saylor, founder and CEO of MicroStrategy.
MicroStrategy is perhaps best known for its enthusiastic endorsement of bitcoin through its bitcoin purchases; the company currently owns 129,218 bitcoins, worth roughly $5.1 billion, after its recent purchase this month of another 4,157 coins, reports CoinDesk.
“Corporations with excess capital and cash reserves on their balance sheet are not protecting shareholder value. We believe that bitcoin fixes that,” Saylor writes in the recently released MicroStrategy annual report, discussing the company’s investment in the popular cryptocurrency.
“Exogenous forces of inflation, regulation, confrontation, corruption, coercion, or confiscation can put the future of any organization at risk. We believe that bitcoin fixes that, too. Our journey to embrace bitcoin, and all that it represents, is why we believe our collective future is bright,” Saylor explains.
The backing by companies such as MicroStrategy as well as Fidelity for cryptocurrency’s inclusion within a retirement plan seems to be yet one more rung on the ladder to legitimizing bitcoin as a viable option across the traditional financial ecosystem.
Investing in MicroStrategy’s Trailblazing With BLOK
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BLOK currently has $885 million in AUM, is actively managed, and invests in companies directly involved in developing and using blockchain technology. BLOK was also the first blockchain ETF approved by the SEC and launched in 2018.
The fund invests in companies partnered with or directly investing in companies utilizing and developing blockchain technologies. However, the fund does not invest directly in blockchain technology or cryptocurrencies.
BLOK spreads its holdings across the size spectrum, investing in all market caps. As of the end of March, top allocations within the blockchain industry included transactional at 34.74%, crypto miners at 22.05%, and venture at 11.56%. BLOK invests across the blockchain landscape in miners, exchanges, and developers.
BLOK has an expense ratio of 0.71% and currently has 46 holdings; MicroStrategy is the fourth-largest holding at 4.24% weight.
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