Meta won’t buy Bitcoin as shareholders knock back treasury idea

Meta shareholders have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to assess whether the tech giant should add Bitcoin to its balance sheet.

A “Bitcoin treasury assessment” proposal put before shareholders received 3.92 million votes in favor — a mere 0.08% of the total — while nearly 5 billion voters decided against the measure, a May 28 regulatory filing shows. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg controls 61% of the company’s voting power, according to an April regulatory statement, which could indicate that he voted against the proposal.

Meta’s shareholder vote results to assess a Bitcoin treasury strategy. Source: SEC

The lopsided vote followed a shareholder proposal in January from Bitcoin advocate Ethan Peck, who called on Meta to invest a portion of its $72 billion cash and cash equivalents position into Bitcoin (BTC $105,489), claiming it would be a hedge against inflation.

“Since cash is consistently being debased and bond yields are lower than the true inflation rate, 28% of Meta’s total assets are consistently diminishing shareholder value,” he argued in his supporting statement.

Peck, who serves as Bitcoin director for the wealth management firm Strive, also noted that Meta’s second-largest shareholder, BlackRock, advised that a 2% Bitcoin allocation is reasonable.

The Bitcoiner submitted the proposal on behalf of his family’s shares in the social media giant.

Peck has also submitted similar Bitcoin treasury proposals to Microsoft and Amazon last year on behalf of the conservative think tank, the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR).

Microsoft shareholders voted against Peck’s proposal in December, while Amazon shareholders are awaiting a vote on whether to allocate at least 5% of the company’s assets to Bitcoin.

Nick Cowan, CEO of fintech firm Valereum, told Cointelegraph in December that Amazon has a better track record of adopting emerging tech and exploring novel investments than many other Big Tech companies.

However, the opportunity cost of holding a volatile asset like Bitcoin instead of investing it into research and development or acquisitions may weigh heavily on shareholders, he said.

Corporate Bitcoin buys on the rise

While the Bitcoin proposals were knocked back by Meta and Microsoft, publicly traded firms from all around the world have started to buy Bitcoin.

BitcoinTreasures.NET data shows that 116 public companies have added Bitcoin to their balance sheets, with some of the newest entrants being GameStop and Swedish health tech firm H100, which both bought Bitcoin for the first time last month.

Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy leads all publicly traded firms with 580,250 Bitcoin, worth $60.9 billion, while eight others, including Marathon Digital Holdings and Tesla, each hold over $1 billion in Bitcoin.