Jake Ostrovskis, an over-the-counter (OTC) trader with market-making firm Wintermute, has predicted that the rising trend of companies incorporating Bitcoin into their balance sheets could substantially drive up the demand for cryptocurrencies by 2025. The interest in Bitcoin as a strategic asset is not just limited to corporations, but has also extended to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and traditional financial institutions.
“As institutions and corporates venture into Bitcoin, we are likely to witness an influx of SMEs as well,” Ostrovskis commented, identifying this as a significant potential driver for the coming year.
An undeniable influence behind this trend is MicroStrategy, a commercial IT firm that has already acquired over $10 billion worth of Bitcoin and plans to purchase an additional $42 billion. By leveraging its equity capital, the firm aims to fund these substantial acquisitions.
Ostrovskis pointed to Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) and Riot Platforms, Bitcoin mining powerhouses, as examples of companies that have issued convertible bonds to fund their Bitcoin acquisitions. This week, tech firm Metaplanet unveiled plans to raise $31.8 million via a bond issue in order to expedite their Bitcoin purchases.
Ostrovskis believes that there is a significant pool of corporate capital that can be tapped into for cryptocurrency investments, a pool that he argues can possibly mobilize faster than pension funds. He said, “People often discuss the impact of ETFs, and the key driver behind this is the fact that pension funds and sovereign wealth funds are now able to invest cash. However, corporates represent another source of capital that is likely a bit more flexible and probably able to act more quickly than waiting for pension funds to buy Bitcoin ETFs.”
Ostrovskis also suggested that it may not be long before a company takes a similar approach with Ethereum. He said, “It’s probably only a matter of time before someone does the same thing and turns themselves into an Ethereum investment vehicle. At that point, you become the MicroStrategy of that world.”
As we move toward 2025, it will be interesting to see how the landscape of corporate investments in cryptocurrency evolves. The trend of companies incorporating Bitcoin into their balance sheets is still in its early days, but the predictions and insights from industry experts like Ostrovskis provide a glimpse into what may lie ahead.
*This article does not serve as investment advice.
