According to a recent SEC filing, Microsoft shareholders are on track to vote on a proposal to assess whether the company should diversify its balance sheet by including Bitcoin during their Dec. 10 meeting.
However, the company's board has officially recommended voting against this initiative.
The proposal, which was submitted by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), says that corporations have a "fiduciary duty" to maximize shareholder value by working to protect their profits against debasement.
The conservative think tank sounded the alarm over U.S. inflation, arguing that a corporation's assets have to appreciate in tandem with the CPI simply to break even.
However, according to the think tank, Microsoft barely manages to outpace inflation with nearly $484 billion worth of assets since it mainly invests in US government securities and corporate bonds.
The NCPPR believes that Microsoft should take a page out of the playbook of business intelligence firm MicroStrategy by adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet. It has noted that the largest cryptocurrency is up by more than 400% over the past five years, significantly outperforming bonds.
The think tank is convinced that Bitcoin is possibly the best inflation hedge. "At a minimum, companies should evaluate the benefits of holding some, even just 1%, of its assets in Bitcoin.
Even though the proposal is extremely unlikely to pass, some Bitcoin proponents still see it as a positive development.
According to former hedge fund manager James Lavish, the resolution shows that Bitcoin can no longer be ignored by public companies.
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team