Trump's crypto advocacy steers businesses away from traditional treasury assets

By Niket Nishant and Bhanvi Satija

Dec 4 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's pro-crypto stance is prompting small businesses to allocate portions of their cash to bitcoin, challenging the dominance of traditional assets as companies look for more robust inflation hedges.

Over the past month, biotech firms Enlivex Therapeutics ENLV.O, Acurx Pharmaceuticals ACXP.O and Hoth Therapeutics HOTH.O have set a target of purchasing up to $1 million of bitcoin to hold as a treasury reserve asset.

The moves underscore the growing appeal of bitcoin as a legitimate tool for corporate treasurers, who see it as a better alternative in a landscape fraught with economic uncertainty, geopolitical risks and fiscal concerns that have complicated the outlook for conventional assets like Treasuries and cash.

"The benefits of bitcoin being used as a treasury reserve asset are obviously apparent. Inject bitcoin into a company and now it's on its way into the top 100 company (by market value) rankings," said Samson Mow, CEO of crypto infrastructure firm JAN3.

Corporations held around 3.3% of the total supply of bitcoin as of August, up 30% year over year, according to a report by bitcoin-focused financial services firm River.

"The things that we've been going through in the last three or four years were such that evaluating bitcoin as an additional tool became a must," Enlivex CEO Oren Hershkovitz said.

"We were considering this regardless of Trump's election, but it was definitely another argument in favor of executing this strategy."

Once confined to the fringes, bitcoin has soared in popularity in the last few years after endorsements from major institutions. Trump's promise of a crypto-friendly administration has grown its clout further.

"The next four years should be pretty good for crypto," Acurx CEO David Luci said.

The incoming president has said he wants to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the planet" and has promised a council to advise on industry-related policy.

Still, skeptics say the volatility risks associated with bitcoin, given its notorious price fluctuations, make it unfit as an inflation hedge.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has called the asset speculative and volatile, even as the regulator approved spot bitcoin exchange traded funds earlier this year.

The currency has also mirrored declines in the S&P 500 index .SPX during periods of economic slowdown in the past, calling into question its effectiveness.

But such criticism is "unfair," said Henry Robinson, co-founder of crypto mining firm Decimal Digital Currency, adding that "bitcoin is not uniquely volatile."

BALANCING HYPE WITH FOCUS

MicroStrategy MSTR.O, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, pioneered the approach of integrating bitcoin into its treasury in 2020. Since then, the token's influence on the company's stock price has been significant, with shares often moving in lockstep with the overall crypto sentiment.

But recent adopters of bitcoin have emphasized that they do not plan on becoming a proxy for the currency and will continue focusing on their core business.

"We're a biotech company. We focus on developing our clinical assets. What I know how to do at the end of the day is to take a drug from pre-clinical to clinical to approval," Enlivex's Hershkovitz said, referring to the different stages of testing an experimental treatment.

Analysts say companies could explore ways to monetize their bitcoin holdings without selling them, should they need capital, by using the currency reserves as collateral to secure loans, either from banks or investors.

"Lending against crypto is totally normal and the collateral is safe," Decimal Digital's Robinson said.

The hype around bitcoin may also drive stock valuations higher, giving such companies added leverage to sell shares for their capital needs. MicroStrategy shares have jumped over 31-fold since it made bitcoin its primary treasury reserve asset.

"The balance sheets of these companies will be more attractive to the public," said Brandon Mintz, CEO of Bitcoin Depot BTM.O, which began investing a portion of its cash into the crypto in June.

MicroStrategy and Hoth did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

((Niket.Nishant@thomsonreuters.com;))