As digital asset adoption continues to grow in 2025, more traditional financial firms are exploring Bitcoin as a balance sheet asset.
I spoke with Ben Workman, CEO of Sw Bitcoin, to understand why this strategy is gaining traction.
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Well, of course, when it comes to the macro environment as well as catalysts, there are many factors that affect the price of Bitcoin.
But tell me what you think of the so-called big beautiful bill and what it means for Bitcoin.
Yeah, Bitcoiners have been watching these types of bills for a very long time because one of the core premises that Bitcoin is fighting against is the devaluation of the US dollar.
So I think we constantly look optimistically that they're going to rein in spending and balance the budget, but then we see as new bills are introduced and we see nearly $3 trillion getting added to the fiscal deficit, it starts to reinforce why it is that Bitcoiners are constantly choosing Bitcoin as their store of value asset.
When you've got an increasing supply of money that has to be used to pay for these these inclusions in these bills, you want something with a completely fixed supply to store your monetary energy and to combat against that.
Yeah, and when we take a step back and look at year to date performance for assets, we're looking at positive territory so far for the major equity averages and Bitcoin, not to mention gold.
So when it comes to the appeal of Bitcoin, tell us a little bit about what you're hearing.
Yeah, so it's interesting when you compare it against equities because what we've really learned over time is that the reported inflation numbers are not truly what the inflation numbers are.
You can really look at the S&P performance to benchmark just how much new capital is coming into the market.
And because of that you're seeing Bitcoin perform very well along with equities despite all the uncertainty in the market, Bitcoin's continued to be incredibly resilient, and it's because of that narrative that's changing where people are seeking out those different alternatives to putting their money that can even outpace equities's performance.
So Bitcoin's been holding. really strong above 100,000, we've had more than 60 days with Bitcoin above 100,000, which is showing that in times of uncertainty like we just saw with the tariff announcements yesterday that Bitcoin's continuing to be resilient and it's continuing to be chosen not only by individuals but by corporations and nations as well.
And then when we take a step back and look at the volatility in the first half of 2025, it's not just equities or even commodities or even bonds, it's across all risk assets.
So why do you think companies are currently choosing Bitcoin over say cash or gold?
So companies have quickly figured out that they were holding a significant amount of capital on their balance sheet that were eroding out from underneath them, and that's not generating shareholder value for their shareholders.
And so what they found was that because they can capitalize their businesses on a commodity like Bitcoin, they can.
Replace those US dollar holdings with Bitcoin directly and they can combat against that inflation.
You're seeing continued announcements in the market just today there's a company in France called Sequans that announced a $384 million capital raise to start their Bitcoin treasury, and this is being rewarded in the market by investors because they're constantly looking for these executives to be driving value for them, not just from the income statement but from deploying the balance sheet effectively.
And so when you see performance on these announcements of 30% and 40% gains, you're seeing that investors are increasingly optimistic about the Bitcoin Treasury play that strategy made so popular over the last several years.
And for people who are watching who may not be as familiar with the term Bitcoin per share, tell us what this means.
Absolutely.
So when you become a Bitcoin treasury company, particularly when you become a leveraged Bitcoin equity, which is what we call the companies that are issuing securities in the pursuit of accumulating more Bitcoin.
What they do is they change the KPI for their business.
They're now focused on every transaction, building more Bitcoin per share of each of their shareholders.
So you can think of it as total Bitcoin holdings divided by the shares.
And because of that, investors are increasingly watching that build up of intrinsic value under their equities that they're holding, and they're rewarding those companies and they're getting premiums in the market, but it goes far beyond that because there's many more metrics that have been introduced into the market, one of which is Bitcoin yield, which is tracking the velocity that these companies are accumulating at the growth in Bitcoin per share.
So the market's continually digesting every time strategy does a new earnings release and Michael Saler puts out new metrics.
The market has to respond and then look at different companies individually as to how they're performing and executing on the strategy.
So it's providing a lot of options to them in the market now.
Yeah, and as you mentioned, Ben, we see a lot of headlines regarding Bitcoin treasury.
So what is next when it comes to corporate finance and Bitcoin?
This is a huge in corporate finance, but we're just at the surface.
A lot of people think that just because you're hearing so many announcements that this is running its course already, but they don't realize that most of these announcements are relatively small scale in the grand scheme of the markets.
So if you think of just the fixed income market being $300 trillion you can tell that there's a lot of capital that these securities issued by Bitcoin treasury companies can still address.
But I think the bigger shift is actually going to come from just companies that adopt Bitcoin as their.
Corporate reserve asset without even needing to issue any of the securities, and I think that's going to be applauded by the market because it's going to show investors that those executives are focusing on not only creating value but retaining it as well when they hold it in the balance sheet.
And finally, before I let you go with opportunity of course comes risk.
So what do you think corporations out there who are considering this as a strategy need to be wary of?
There's a lot of things that they need to consider.
First is you have to have proper governance in place when you're running one of these strategies.
You need to focus on your custodians and make sure that you're using really sound custodians and trading desks to acquire the Bitcoin, but you also need to make sure you're effectively managing your leverage ratio.
Don't get your company too leveraged in the market where you might be able to take your own outcomes out of your hands.
OK, Ben, well, thank you so much for joining me here at the New York Stock Exchange, and thank you so much for sharing your insights.
Absolutely, thank you for having me.
Thank you.
