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Should You Invest in Bitcoin via the Stock Market?
Buying stock of publicly traded companies that own bitcoin is an indirect — but not necessarily rewarding — way to invest in crypto
Bitcoin has been in the news in the past week on several different fronts. El Salvador, which doesn’t have its own currency, became the first country to make bitcoin legal tender for all debts. MicroStrategy Inc., a provider of analytics software and services — the public company that owns the most bitcoins and whose CEO, Michael Saylor, is encouraging other firms to hold bitcoins within their treasury departments — doubled-down by issuing $500 million in debt in order to buy more bitcoins. And bitcoin prices got a boost from a tweet by (who else?) Elon Musk, who indicated that Tesla would again accept bitcoin payments for Tesla vehicles once more renewable energy was used in the mining of bitcoins. As bitcoin makes more inroads as an established currency, expect to see more public companies holding it. But what are the rewards and risks to owning stocks that in turn own bitcoin? Let’s take a close look at the nine U.S. listed firms that own bitcoin — I call them crypto stocks. We’ll see a story of high risk, but (year-to-date) not necessarily high returns.
