The allure of a corporate treasury that’s chock-full of cryptocurrency is enticing the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) yet again. This time, the group has Meta Platforms Inc. in its crosshairs.
Ethan Peck, a National Center employee, submitted a Bitcoin Treasury Shareholder Proposal to Meta on behalf of his family, marking yet another attempt to bring the cryptocurrency to the boardrooms of tech giants.
Tim Jotzman, a Bitcoin (BTC) podcast host, shared the proposal on Jan. 10 via a social media post. See below.
Will corporate treasuries turn into crypto strongholds?
Based in Washington, D.C., the NCPPR has been touting Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and economic turbulence. They’ve already approached Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. with similar pitches.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft nixed the idea, but Seattle-based Amazon will reportedly consider it at an April meeting of its shareholders.
NCPPR seems to be taking a page out of Michael Saylor’s playbook. Saylor, as former CEO and current chair of MicroStrategy, crafted a Bitcoin-heavy corporate strategy and has emerged as a poster child for corporate treasuries filled with crypto.
If NCPPR gets its way, Meta and Amazon, like MicroStrategy, will allocate a portion of their respective assets to Bitcoin. Why? They see it as an alternative to lackluster corporate bonds due to its fixed supply.
Also, Bitcoin ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, spiked 100% by the end of 2024. That’s quadruple the returns of the S&P 500 index and 35% higher than the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF, which tracks the magnificent seven tech giants (of which Meta, Microsoft and Amazon are members).
And then there’s MicroStrategy, which saw its stock balloon 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 low-cost, seamless transactions worldwide, particularly for the unbanked population. However, the initiative faced significant regulatory pushback from lawmakers and financial authorities globally, who raised concerns about monetary sovereignty, data privacy, and potential misuse for illicit activities.
The project rebranded as Diem in 2020, focusing solely on U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins. Meta courted Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal to be partners, but they withdrew support.
By early 2022, Meta sold Diem to Silvergate Bank for around $200 million.
While the Libra/Diem initiative was a bust, it demonstrated Meta’s ambition in the digital currency space.
Whether Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his board take the NCPPR’s bait and make Bitcoin their next big move, remains to be seen.