Amazon stock shareholders are making it known that they want the e-commerce giant to join the Bitcoin hype train and invest in the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin’s meteoric surge to $100K is significant in many ways. For instance, BTC has now become the 7th largest asset in the world, giving stiff competition to contenders like Gold and the US dollar. While the token is currently being dubbed a digital gold, the market is now pivoting hard towards BTC, with giants like Amazon and Microsoft contemplating adding Bitcoin to their holdings.
The National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), has proposed that the e-commerce giant allocate at least 5% of its assets to Bitcoin. The proposal was shared on December 6th, with the company yet to answer the question of if it will indeed buy BTC. “Though Bitcoin is currently a volatile asset – as Amazon stock has been at times throughout its history – corporations have a responsibility to maximize shareholder value over the long-term as well as the short-term,” the proposal read. “Diversifying with Bitcoin can solve the problem of preserving shareholder value without taking on too much volatility.”
Amazon is currently adding Bitcoin to the firm’s treasury as part of a landmark new development. The firm’s board of directors has reportedly called an emergency meeting to discuss the aforementioned development, pondering hard on whether adding BTC to the firm’s treasury will benefit the entire company or not. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has never publicly commented on Bitcoin or the growth of the crypto industry.
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How Much Bitcoin Could AMZN Swoop Up?
If Amazon were to allocate 5% of its total assets of $584.62 billion to Bitcoin, the amount would be approximately $29.23 billion. At a price of just beyond 95,000 per BTC, this would allow Amazon to acquire approximately 300,000 BTC. This could be a solid starting point for the company, although it pales in comparison to MicroStrategy, which the NCPPR cited as a success story to base Bitcoin allocation. MicroStrategy (MSTR) holds the largest corporate Bitcoin portfolio of over 423,650 BTC valued at approximately $42 billion.
“Amazon isn’t adequately protecting billions of dollars of shareholder value simply by holding these assets…Institutional and corporate Bitcoin adoption is becoming more commonplace: more public companies such as Tesla and Block have added Bitcoin to their balance sheets,” NCPPR added in the note. Addressing the company’s potential stock performance after buying BTC, the note again cites MSTR’s recent stock surge.
“Amazon should – and perhaps has a fiduciary duty to consider adding assets to its treasury. That appreciate more than bonds, even if those assets are more volatile short-term… Over the past five years, the price of Bitcoin increased by 1,246%,⁶. Outperforming corporate bonds by 1,242% on average.⁷ MicroStrategy – which holds Bitcoin on its balance sheet – has had its stock outperform Amazon stock by 537% in the previous year.⁸. And they’re not alone…. Shareholders request that the Board conduct an assessment to determine if adding Bitcoin to the Company’s treasury is in the best long-term interests of shareholders.”
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Amazon ranks fourth on the S&P 500, boasting a market cap of $2.38 trillion, ahead of Google, Tesla, and Meta, but trailing Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft. A step towards Bitcoin could perhaps close that gap to the latter three Magnificent-7 members.