Businesses That Have Nothing to Do With Crypto Are Starting to Buy Bitcoin

A couple of weeks after the presidential election, Joe Davy, chief executive of the marketing firm Banzai, sent an email to the company’s board of directors: He wanted Banzai to start buying Bitcoin.

On the face of it, a plunge into the freewheeling world of cryptocurrencies was a strange move for Banzai, a Nasdaq-listed company known for its corporate webinar product. But the election of Donald J. Trump, who embraced Bitcoin on the campaign trail, had galvanized the crypto industry and sent prices skyrocketing. Mr. Davy argued that the investment would protect the company’s finances in case inflation devalued the U.S. dollar, a common but widely contested claim made by crypto enthusiasts.

On Nov. 26, Banzai announced that it would spend up to 10 percent of the funds it held in its corporate treasury on Bitcoin. (The company reported $4.3 million in cash in its latest quarterly report.) “It ended up being a pretty straightforward conversation,” Mr. Davy said in an interview. “It makes sense to own this thing.”

As the price of Bitcoin has soared, a small but growing number of businesses that have nothing to do with crypto — like Banzai — have started to build up stockpiles, linking their financial performance, at least in part, to volatile digital currency markets.