The amount of bitcoin (BTC) held by publicly traded companies worldwide now exceeds one million units. This is a trend started in 2020 by Strategy (a company then called "MicroStrategy") and has conquered companies in different niches such as automotive, real estate, financial, medical, among others.

The following chart, provided by the BitcoinTreasuries portal, shows the 100 companies with the most bitcoins and details how much each holds: 100 publicly traded companies with the most bitcoin in their treasuries. Source: BitcoinTreasuries.com.

As you can see, the top 5 public companies with the most bitcoin are Strategy, MARA Holdings, XXI, Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company, and Bullish.

Broadly speaking, companies with BTC in their treasuries can be classified into two broad categories. On the one hand, there are those that maintain their original business (real estate, financial, medical, etc.) and simply add the digital currency to their balance sheets. The Argentine company Mercado Libre, for example, falls into this category.

On the other hand, there are companies that have made Bitcoin accumulation a business model in itself. These include, for example, Strategy, XXI, Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company, and Metaplanet. These companies' stocks are of interest to investors as they often benefit from Bitcoin's price increases.

However, the fact that some of these companies Strategy being the clearest example are taking on debt to buy Bitcoin raises some concerns. The financial firm Breed has said that this is "a systemic threat to Bitcoin." If BTC were to experience a significant price drop, many of these companies (probably the smallest and least financially capable) would be in trouble and, perhaps, would be forced to fully or partially liquidate their Bitcoin holdings. The truth is that this has not yet happened, and the Bitcoin accumulation race continues.