Shareholder pokes Meta to fill corporate treasury with BTC

The lure of a corporate treasury brimming with cryptocurrency is once again appealing to the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR). This time, the group has Meta Platforms Inc. in its sights.

Ethan Peck, a National Center employee, submitted a Treasury Bitcoin shareholder proposal to Meta on behalf of his family, marking another attempt to bring the cryptocurrency into the boardrooms of tech giants.

Tim Jotzman, a Bitcoin (BTC) host of the podcast, shared the proposal on January 10 via a social media post. See below.

Will corporate treasuries turn into crypto strongholds?

Based in Washington, DC, NCPPR touts Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and economic turmoil. They have already contacted Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. with similar arguments.

Microsoft based in Redmond, Washington denied the idea, but Seattle-based Amazon will do it would have examine it at an April meeting of its shareholders.

The NCPPR appears to be taking inspiration from Michael Saylor’s strategy playbook. Saylor, as former CEO and current president of MicroStrategy, made a Bitcoin-based business strategy and has become a benchmark for crypto-filled corporate treasuries.

If NCPPR wins its case, Meta and Amazon, like MicroStrategy, will allocate part of their respective assets to Bitcoin. For what? They see it as an alternative to lackluster corporate bonds because of their fixed offering.

Additionally, Bitcoin ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, enriched 100% by the end of 2024. That’s four times the returns of the S&P 500 Index and 35% more than the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF, which tracks the magnificent seven tech giants (of which Meta, Microsoft and Amazon are members).

And then there is MicroStrategy, which has seen its stock rise 2,191% over five years.

Remember Libra? No? GOOD.

Meta attempted to launch its own digital currency, Libra, in 2019, when the company was known as Facebook. The project aimed to create a global stablecoin backed by a basket of fiat currencies and government securities.

Libra was intended to facilitate transparent and low-cost transactions around the world, especially for the unbanked population. However, the initiative has faced significant regulatory resistance from lawmakers and financial authorities around the world, who have raised concerns about monetary sovereignty, data privacy and possible misuse at for the purposes of illicit activities.

The project was renamed Diem in 2020, focusing solely on US dollar-backed stablecoins. Meta courted Visa, Mastercard and PayPal to become partners, but they withdrew support.

In early 2022, Meta sold Diem to Silvergate Bank for around $200 million.

Although the Libra/Diem initiative was a failure, it demonstrated Meta’s ambition in the digital currency space.

It remains to be seen whether Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his board will take the NCPPR bait and make Bitcoin their next big move.