比特币（BTC）作为库存资产：企业融资的新时代？

12 月，Microstrategy 执行主席 Michael Saylor 向微软董事会作了介绍。塞勒认为，微软应该将部分资金投入比特币。

A proposal by Michael Saylor, executive chairman of MicroStrategy, to have Microsoft put a portion of its treasury funds in bitcoin was voted down by a large majority of the company’s shareholders at the annual meeting in December. (Author’s note: I currently do not hold bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.)

MicroStrategy 执行主席 Michael Saylor 提议让微软将部分库存资金投入比特币，但在 12 月份的年会上被该公司绝大多数股东否决。 （作者注：我目前不持有比特币或任何其他加密货币。）

This measure was significant because it marked the first time that a major U.S. company had considered adding bitcoin to its balance sheet. While some companies, such as Tesla and others, already hold bitcoin on their balance sheets, Microsoft is a bellwether of the U.S. stock market and could sway other corporations to follow suit.

这项措施意义重大，因为它标志着美国大公司首次考虑将比特币添加到其资产负债表中。虽然特斯拉等一些公司已经在资产负债表上持有比特币，但微软是美国股市的领头羊，可能会影响其他公司效仿。

Here are the arguments in favor of bitcoin for corporations.

以下是支持企业使用比特币的论据。

The main argument that bitcoin evangelists put forth (Saylor is just one of them) is that it is an inflation hedge. Why is that? For starters, bitcoin is hard capped at 21 million by design. No one can change that, unless the entire community “hard forks,” which would probably shake up and cause widespread fallout. This is in contrast to the U.S. dollar and most other fiat currencies, which governments worldwide often increase in supply, which leads to inflation.

比特币传播者（塞勒只是其中之一）提出的主要论点是，它是一种通胀对冲工具。这是为什么？首先，比特币的设计硬性上限为 2100 万。没有人可以改变这一点，除非整个社区进行“硬分叉”，这可能会产生震动并造成广泛的影响。这与美元和大多数其他法定货币形成鲜明对比，世界各国政府经常增加美元和大多数其他法定货币的供应，从而导致通货膨胀。

Saylor and others argue that bitcoin acts as an “uncorrelated” asset, meaning that bitcoin moves independently (not as a herd) from other assets such as stocks, bonds and gold and could offset any losses for a particular quarter or calendar year.

塞勒和其他人认为，比特币是一种“不相关”资产，这意味着比特币独立于股票、债券和黄金等其他资产（而不是作为群体）移动，并且可以抵消特定季度或日历年的任何损失。

Additionally, the Financial Accounting Standards Board in 2023 issued guidance to allow for “fair-value” accounting of digital assets on corporate balance sheets. Before this FASB ruling, companies needed to reflect digital asset value losses but not gains in their updated balance sheets.

此外，财务会计准则委员会于 2023 年发布了指导意见，允许在企业资产负债表上对数字资产进行“公允价值”会计。在 FASB 做出此项裁决之前，公司需要在更新的资产负债表中反映数字资产价值损失，而不是收益。

Another important development was the SEC's approval of bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, which paved the way for people, funds and companies that did not want to hold the actual volatile underlying digital bitcoin asset to hold it in an SEC legally protected stock instrument.

另一个重要进展是美国证券交易委员会 (SEC) 于 2024 年 1 月批准了比特币 ETF，这为那些不想持有实际波动性基础数字比特币资产的个人、基金和公司将其持有在美国证券交易委员会 (SEC) 受法律保护的股票工具中铺平了道路。

Now corporate buyers have several options to hold bitcoin or participate in its growth. They can hold actual bitcoin, hold companies that have a lot of bitcoin, hold an SEC-approved ETF or trade perpetuals, futures contracts or options.

现在，企业买家有多种选择来持有比特币或参与其增长。他们可以持有实际的比特币、持有拥有大量比特币的公司、持有美国证券交易委员会批准的 ETF 或交易永续合约、期货合约或期权。

Finally, bitcoin has outpaced other assets in terms of growth in the past decade.

最后，在过去十年中，比特币的增长速度超过了其他资产。

Additionally, bitcoin is a new asset class with fewer “counterparty” risks relative to other asset classes used to store funds or wealth, such as bonds, gold and real estate, a feature noted in the original 2008 bitcoin whitepaper. A “counterparty” risk is something like corporate theft, fraud or malfeasance that could force a high-flying stock to zero overnight.

此外，比特币是一种新的资产类别，相对于用于存储资金或财富的其他资产类别（例如债券、黄金和房地产），“交易对手”风险较小，这一特点在 2008 年比特币白皮书中指出。 “交易对手”风险是指公司盗窃、欺诈或渎职行为，可能会迫使股价飙升的股票在一夜之间跌至零。

That said, it is not true to say bitcoin itself has no counterparty risk, as quantum computers could potentially hack its cryptography, but so far, that has not happened. The internet itself could also go down globally, albeit probably only for short periods.

也就是说，说比特币本身没有交易对手风险是不正确的，因为量子计算机可能会破解其密码，但到目前为止，这种情况还没有发生。互联网本身也可能在全球范围内瘫痪，尽管可能只是短期的。

What the future may bring

未来可能带来什么

Over the years, I have grown to respect this new asset class. While many technologies encountered serious opposition during their early years, there is something called the Lindy effect that says that if something nonperishable has survived over time, it will likely remain.

多年来，我逐渐尊重这种新的资产类别。虽然许多技术在早期遇到了严重的反对，但有一种称为林迪效应的东西，即如果一些不易腐烂的东西随着时间的推移而幸存下来，它很可能会继续存在。

Sometimes older generations dismiss things because new developments do not fit into the pattern they have been accustomed to. Although I have not personally put bitcoin on my own balance sheet, I can see Gen Z — who will take the reins of corporations in the future — doing so. That’s because Gen Z has grown up as digital natives without analog payphones, library card catalogs, LPs and the like.

有时，老一辈人会因为新的发展不符合他们已经习惯的模式而忽视一些事情。尽管我个人还没有将比特币纳入自己的资产负债表，但我可以看到 Z 世代——他们将在未来掌管企业——这样做。这是因为 Z 世代是作为数字原住民成长起来的，没有模拟公用电话、借书证目录、密纹唱片等。

Whether bitcoin (or other cryptocurrencies) significantly becomes a treasury asset for many of the world’s businesses and corporations is something to watch. At the moment, most nonbelievers point to its volatility (beta) as a negative, but hardcore bitcoin and crypto believers point to volatility as a “feature not a bug,” meaning that when these price drops happen, buyers swoop in to acquire more, thus maintaining the long-term rise its price trend shows.

比特币（或其他加密货币）是否会显着成为世界上许多企业和公司的财务资产值得关注。目前，大多数非信徒认为其波动性（贝塔值）是负面的，但比特币和加密货币的铁杆信徒则将波动性视为“特征而不是错误”，这意味着当价格下跌发生时，买家会蜂拥而入，购买更多，从而维持其价格趋势所显示的长期上涨。

As the new bitcoin-friendly Trump administration moves in, and more companies acquire even small amounts of bitcoin (or other derivative instruments) into their treasuries alongside larger pension and sovereign wealth funds, the growth phase and volatility of bitcoin may become more tempered and even be called a “boring” growth asset in the future.

随着新的对比特币友好的特朗普政府上台，越来越多的公司将少量的比特币（或其他衍生工具）与规模更大的养老金和主权财富基金一起购买到他们的国库中，比特币的增长阶段和波动性可能会变得更加温和，甚至变得更加温和。未来将被称为“无聊”的增长资产。