16th February 2025 > > Georgia, Wisconsin, accountancy, MSTR & Henry V.

tl;dr

Georgia, Wisconsin, the list is ever-growing. Oh, and perhaps every investment fund in the world will soon be owning BTC by proxy – MSTR is on track to join the S&P 500, proving the worth of Henry V once again 600 years later. He is a man to behold.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

Just for fun, on this quiet start to Sunday, a bit of techie nonsense for you:

Occasional Series – A Central Banker, until he decided to do something far more useful instead (*)

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(*) He retired.

I might also mention he is on a full fat, gold-plated, tax-free pension paid for by us, but I am sure he deserves every centime, not least for being honest about being dishonest.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – And now Georgia is at it

Yep, we have the 21st US state starting the legislative process of adopting BTC as a treasury reserve asset:

https://legiscan.com/GA/sponsors/SB178/2025

All eyes on Utah, which will likely be the first state in the race to legally adopt BTC as a treasury reserve asset, a decision expected by 24th March 2025.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Wisconsin

SWIB (State of Wisconsin’s Investment Board) owns 6mm spot BTC ETF shares issued by BlackRock (IBIT) with a value of approximately $335mm. SWIB’s primary responsibility is as an investment manager for the pension funds of state employees.

This isn’t the first state pension fund to invest in BTC, nor will it be the last.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Accountancy, MSTR, & Henry V

The CCC has in the past railed against an accounting principle applied in the US that was part of Operation Choke Point 2.0. This principle stated that BTC held on the balance sheet should be valued at the lower of acquisition cost and market price, but with no upward revision ever allowed for. Given the volatile nature of BTC price action, this rule was designed specifically to ensure that accounting losses would be reported by any company that had the temerity to adopt BTC as a treasury reserve asset.

As we saw yesterday, and in other recent editions of the CCC, Operation Choke Point 2.0 is now dead and buried. As proof, you can see Senator Elizabeth Warren just over there at its graveside, rocking and wailing in grief at her loss, forever upset at the return of liberty, freedom, and democracy.

And so too does this ridiculous accounting rule bite the dust. Companies are now mandated to report crypto holdings at fair market value, like all other investments, with the special exemption of the banking book for regulated banks, which is another bone of contention we will address some other day.

The standout winner here is MSTR, rebranded from MicroStrategy to just Strategy.

MSTR owns 478,740 BTC bought at an average cost of $62.5k per BTC, valued significantly lower than today’s prevailing price. That will all change for Q1 2025 raising the delightful prospect that MSTR will qualify to be included in the S&P 500. The S&P 500 is a broad stock index that is closely followed by all investors across the globe. As such, it is an obvious choice for lower risk investors who want exposure to a range of large cap stocks.

If MSTR makes it into the S&P 500, all those tracking funds, and all those pension funds, and all those pools of investment money will then all have to own MSTR and, by extension, BTC. There will be virtually no investor globally who will not have exposure, however small, to BTC.

Doncha love crypto adoption?

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I think if this happens – as it surely will – Henry V’s forever enduring philosophy quoted daily in our "Compliance Stuff" and repeated here, is more apposite than ever.

“We may all tilt and joust and prove our daring and worth, for there is no finer act of courage in the world than to punish evildoers so that poor people can live.” Henry V, summer 1420, possibly during his wedding speech in Troyes (a most beautiful town) to Catherine of Valois.