Bitcoin held by publicly listed firms climbs 16% in Q1: Bitwise

The amount of Bitcoin held on the books of publicly traded companies rose by 16.1% in the first quarter of 2025, according to crypto fund issuer Bitwise.

Total company Bitcoin (BTC) holdings rose to around 688,000 BTC by the end of Q1, with firms adding 95,431 BTC over the quarter, Bitwise reported in an April 14 X post.

The value of the combined Bitcoin stacks rose around 2.2%, reaching a total combined value of $56.7 billion with a price per BTC of $82,445, the firm added.

Source: Bitwise

Bitwise noted that the number of public companies holding Bitcoin rose to 79, with 12 firms buying the cryptocurrency for the first time in Q1.

The largest first-time Bitcoin buyer was the Hong Kong construction firm Ming Shing, whose subsidiary Lead Benefit bought a total of 833 BTC over the quarter, with an initial 500 BTC buy in January and a follow-up 333 BTC buy in February.

The next largest maiden Bitcoin holder was the far-right favored YouTube alternative Rumble, which bought 188 BTC in mid-March.

One notable debut Bitcoin buyer was the Hong Kong investment firm HK Asia Holdings Limited, which only purchased a single Bitcoin in February, but the announcement caused its share price to nearly double in value in a single trading day.

Meanwhile, Japanese investment firm Metaplanet said in an April 14 note that it purchased another 319 Bitcoin for an average price of 11.8 million yen ($82,770) per coin, bringing its total holdings to 4,525 Bitcoin, currently worth $383.2 million.

However, the company has spent a total of 58.145 billion yen, nearly $406 million, buying up its current Bitcoin stack.

Metaplanet (3350) was down 0.5% by the April 15 lunch break on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after closing trading on April 14 up 3.71%, according to Google Finance.

Metaplanet opened the April 15 trading day flat after disclosing a Bitcoin buy the day before. Source: Google Finance

The Tokyo-based firm’s latest Bitcoin buy puts it firmly in tenth place among the world’s largest public companies holding Bitcoin, trailing behind Jack Dorsey’s Block, Inc., which holds 8,485 BTC, according to Coinkite data.

Bitcoin is trading around $84,440 and has traded flat over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. It’s up around 2.3% since the end of Q1 on March 31, having clawed back from a low of under $75,000 on April 7 after a wider market drop due to a round of fresh global tariffs imposed by the US.

Asia Express: Bitcoiner sex trap extortion? BTS firm’s blockchain disaster