Yahoo Finance

• MicroStrategy's stunning bitcoin-fueled stock rally is tempting other firms looking to replicate the strategy.

• Some have already added crypto to corporate treasuries, while others are considering it.

• The coin's reputation as a hedge against inflation or other crises is appealing as firms operate in more volatile world.

MicroStrategy's bet on bitcoin has fueled a wild rally in the shares of the business software company — and it's driving more companies to copy the strategy.

MicroStrategy's crypto playbook has catapulted its stock up 501% this year. Though its core business is software, piling up an enormous trove of bitcoin has become its guiding star.

Now, other firms are stocking up. Mimicking MicroStrategy's approach, corporate bitcoin adopters include the crypto firm Marathon Holdings and Japan's Metaplanet. Biopharma company Acurx Pharmaceuticals also recently announced the approval by its boar for a $1 million purchase.

Though bitcoin holdings aren't unique to MicroStrategy, the move is generally rare for firms outside the crypto industry to invest. That could be changing, though, industry sources told Business Insider.

"Speculative transactions, previously inherent in the crypto market, are becoming a thing of the past, and the ever-growing interest of institutions in creating reserves based on bitcoin confirms this," Gracy Chen, CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitget, told BI.

Diversification or quick profit?

In a December note, Bernstein analysts suggested that bitcoin will replace gold as the world's premier "store of value" asset and become a standard holding in corporate treasuries.

Chen noted that bitcoin has gained a reputation as a hedge against inflation and economic crises, which could be attractive to companies as the world grows more volatile. The argument is emerging more and more — recently, a think tank pushed for Microsoft to consider buying bitcoin for this reason, with a similar proposal being floated to Amazon shareholders.

Of course, bitcoin's triple-digit rally this year also spurs dreams of hefty profit, with MicroStrategy's wild stock rally exhibit A. The firm has raked in tokens by selling interest-free convertible debt, which rewards the buyer if bitcoin keeps rising. The success of these has turbocharged its stock price.

"At a bitcoin price of $97,400, the value of the bitcoins that the company has created this year is ~$7.7bn, and we believe it is important to note that it created that value without the capital outlays and operational costs associated with bitcoin mining," Benchmark Company managing director Mark Palmer wrote in November.