Rumble Considers Adding Bitcoin to Its Balance Sheet After Poll Receives Overwhelming Support From the Crypto Community

Rumble Inc (RUM) shares gained as much as 9%, hitting a high of $6.20 in after-hours trading on Nov. 19 after its founder and CEO Chris Pavlovski earlier posed the question on Twitter, which saw strong support from the crypto community.

Rumble, a video-sharing platform popular among far-right figures and conspiracy theorists, might be adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet.

What Happened: Rumble Inc (NYSE:RUM) shares rose as much as 9% to hit a high of $6.20 in after-hours trading on Nov. 19.

Earlier in the day, Rumble founder and CEO Chris Pavlovski posed the question on X, which saw strong support from the cryptocurrency community.

“Should Rumble add Bitcoin to its balance sheet?” Pavlovski asked in an X poll, to which around 29,000 people answered “Yes.”

“Yes. Happy to help if needed,” said Jack Mallers, CEO and founder of Bitcoin payment provider Strike, in response to Pavlovski’s question.

Michael Saylor, chairman of the Bitcoin-buying MicroStrategy, offered to discuss with Pavlovski how it could be done, which Pavlovski appears to have taken up.

Rumble shares closed up 2.5% on the day at $5.68 before reaching a peak after-hours at $6.20, which has now cooled to $5.78, a 1.76% gain since market close, according to Google Finance.

Rumble, based in Florida and Ontario, runs a video-sharing platform of the same name known for its lenient content moderation policies. Its cloud services arm also hosts the Donald Trump-owned social media platform Truth Social.

Rumble has roughly 67 million monthly active users and began trading publicly on the Nasdaq in September 2022.

As of Sept. 30, 2024, Rumble’s balance sheet of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities was approximately $132 million.

The platform also brought in roughly $25 million in revenue in the third quarter, up 39% year-on-year.

Its shares have been down since its Q3 results were reported last week, in which the company’s revenue missed analyst estimates by 14% and its earnings per share (EPS) fell short of expectations by 20%.

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Why It Matters: If Rumble adds Bitcoin to its balance sheet, it would join a growing list of companies that have taken the plunge this year.

Artificial intelligence firm Genius Group took the first steps in its “Bitcoin first” strategy on Nov. 18, purchasing 110 Bitcoin for $10 million. It eventually wants to hold 90% of its reserves in Bitcoin.

Meanwhile, the Japan-based Metaplanet has just bought another $11.3 million worth of Bitcoin, with Bitcoin Treasuries data showing the firm now holds 1142.2 Bitcoin as of Nov. 19.

Medical device maker Semler Scientific also added $17.7 million of Bitcoin recently, increasing its holdings to 1,273.