Quick gut-punch stat: Only 4 publicly disclosed U.S. companies other than MicroStrategy currently hold more than $50 million in BTC on their balance sheets. Last Wednesday, design-software darling Figma revealed it already sits on $70 million worth—and might lift that to $100 million before ringing the IPO bell.
Wait, did the Canva rival just out-Saylor MicroStrategy?
I’ll be honest, this one blindsided me. We’ve been busy arguing over BlackRock’s ETF filing and whether the halving rally is priced in, and—boom—Figma drops an S-1 stating it’s been dollar-cost-averaging BTC since Q1. The filing even spells out that Bitcoin now represents "approximately 6.2% of corporate treasury assets." For a pre-IPO unicorn, that’s not chump change.
Bitcoin itself is still yawning around $26,300-26,700 (as of late Monday UTC). The sideways chop has been so dull that my group chat started scheduling movie nights instead of TA sessions. So seeing a Silicon Valley brand buy during the boredom feels almost punk.
Here’s what actually happened (in bullet-point gossip form)
- Figma acquired 2,643 BTC between January and July (average price: ~$26.5K).
- The firm told the SEC it plans to top up to 3,800 BTC “subject to market conditions.”
- CFO Jeffrey Wong reportedly uses River for cold-storage custody, not Coinbase or MicroStrategy’s MacroStrategy subsidiary—interesting choice.
- No leverage (they note zero loans against the stack). Cue relieved sighs from the risk committee.
Why is a design company playing Satoshi roulette?
The obvious answer: treasury diversification. But in my experience, most startups reaching IPO stage still keep 95% in bland T-bills. A dev friend inside Figma (yes, the source is “anon” because NDA) said the board green-lit BTC after the Silicon Valley Bank mess. Remember that weekend in March when founders were literally refreshing Fedwire? That scar tissue is real.
One Telegram voice note from @JaneDoeVC summed it up perfectly:
“If your entire runway lives in TradFi rails that can pause on a Friday night, why not shift 5-10% into an asset that settles on Saturday?”
Community temperature check: bullish glee, cautious side-eye
The crypto corner of Twitter (sorry, X) split fast into two camps. Preston Pysh fired off a celebratory “Game theory doing its thing” tweet, while Nic Carter chimed in that on-chain transparency will be the real stress test: “Let’s see if they actually HODL through the next 40% drawdown.”
Meanwhile, a couple of TradFi folks we follow aren’t buying the hype. Lisa Abramowicz on Bloomberg radio mused, “This is still extraordinary volatility to introduce pre-IPO.” But she also admitted MicroStrategy’s share price is up 215% since August 2020, so the debate isn’t closed.
Is this just marketing before the IPO roadshow?
I’m not entirely sure about this, but the timing feels…fortuitous. Figma had its Adobe merger shot down by regulators, so posting an edgy treasury strategy could reignite excitement. I’ve noticed that whenever a company wants cult status, sprinkling some BTC pixie dust does wonders for social metrics. We saw it with Tesla in 2021, remember?
Still, to be fair, filings show they started scooping sats months before the IPO chatter heated up. So, chicken-or-egg?
How does this stack up against other corporate stacks?
| Company | BTC Held | % of Treasury |
|---|---|---|
| MicroStrategy | 152,800 | ~72% |
| Tesla | 9,720 | ~4% |
| Block (Square) | 8,027 | ~5% |
| Figma (planned) | 3,800 | ~8% |
In context, Figma’s bet is modest in raw BTC but fairly bold relative to its cash pile. It leapfrogs Coinbase (they keep most BTC off balance sheet) and dwarfs any tech IPO since Coinbase itself.
What could go wrong? (Yes, we asked)
• Regulatory heat: If the SEC ever classifies BTC as something other than a commodity, Figma’s auditors may need new caffeine prescriptions.
• Volatility headline risk: Imagine CNBC banner: “Figma IPO drops 12% as Bitcoin plunges below $20K.” The shorts would have a field day.
• Custody & key management: River is reputable, but hacks love a new honeypot. Remember when Equifax said, “We take security seriously”?
So…should the rest of us care?
If you hold spot BTC, you’re probably shrugging with a smug nod—more corporate demand is more permanent bid. If you trade alt rotations, the signal is subtler: every time a household-name company adopts Bitcoin, it drains some speculative juice from smaller-cap tokens. I think the rotation out of meme coins into BTC we saw in April could accelerate if more treasuries follow suit.
And let’s be real: the average Robinhood investor picking up Figma shares on IPO day may suddenly find themselves indirectly long Bitcoin. That mainstream seep-in effect matters.
Where do we go from here?
My hunch? We’ll see two or three mid-cap tech firms copy-paste Figma’s playbook before the end of Q1 2024—especially if rates stay elevated and money-market yields slip. The cleaner catalyst might be the April 2024 halving; historical data shows BTC rallies an average 122% in the twelve months after each halving. If that pattern kicks in, Figma’s 3,800 BTC could morph from $100M to ~$220M just when quarterly filings hit mainstream outlets.
Parting thought—and a data-driven prediction
Numbers talk, so here’s mine: using Glassnode’s supply-held-by-entities (1-10k BTC) metric, we’re already back at December 2020 accumulation levels. Overlay that with the fact public company holdings have grown 38% year-over-year, and I’m penciling in $42K BTC by New Year’s Eve. Not moonboy territory, but a respectable +60% from today—enough to make CFOs sit up in board meetings.
Whether Figma turns out to be a visionary or just the latest shiny headline, it’s another breadcrumb on the corporate adoption trail. And that trail, friends, keeps getting harder to ignore.
