Unlike traditional bearer assets, bitcoin does not represent a claim on any other asset; instead, it is a digital asset directly owned and controlled by the key holder . This digital form of bearer asset emphasizes the importance of securing private keys.
From: Bitcoin is a Bearer Asset
Key Insight from Bitcoin for Institutions:
1. Tax-qualified pensions don't pay capital gains tax - a massive advantage for accumulating bitcoin gains over long time horizons.
Chapter: Pensions
C-Suite Realignment
Severance packages to executives who fought the effort and lost, promoting new executives around the CEO who championed it.
From: Bitcoin for Institutions
Key Insight from Bitcoin for Institutions:
4. Coinbase's legacy technology predates Segwit best practices, creating systemic risk for ETFs using them as custodian.
Chapter: Bitcoin Custody Requires a Higher Understanding of Tradeoffs
⚠️ The Asymmetric Risk: Bitcoin drawdowns are temporary (historically always recovering to new highs), but missing bitcoin's appreciation is permanent. Fiduciaries face greater long-term risk from exclusion than inclusion.
From: Mutual Funds / ETFs - Wielding the Blade
The key characteristic of these assets was that whoever physically held cash could claim the value it represented . However, in modern times, cash is no longer considered a bearer asset because it no longer means a direct claim on gold or any other asset.
From: Bitcoin is a Bearer Asset
Key Insight from Bitcoin for Institutions:
4. Cash lost its bearer status in 1971 —when Nixon closed the gold window, breaking the direct link to gold.
Chapter: Bitcoin is a Bearer Asset
Key Insight from Bitcoin for Institutions:
4. Direct treasury eliminates counterparty risk - the superior long-term solution removes all ETF/custodian dependencies.
Chapter: Deferred Compensation - Riding the Wave
Key Insight from Bitcoin for Institutions:
3. Operating profitability can be improved by systematically selling bitcoin gains and including them in operating revenue.
Chapter: Treasury / Balance Sheet - Having Optionality
Authenticity Risk
Gold and silver bars must be verified to ensure they are not just gold-plated tungsten.
From: Bitcoin for Institutions
Like with speech, there cannot be truly free markets without the total freedom to transact . The US uses its status as the central issuer of the world's current reserve currency (the US dollar) and the world's reserve asset (US government bonds) to maintain its status as the dominant leader in the world. The US uses SWIFT payment network access to provide oversight over seemingly every transaction in the global financial system. "Know Your Customer" and "Anti-Money Laundering" regulations claim that nobody transacting has any right to privacy. The reality is that the majority of criminal activity in the world happens in US dollars—a much preferred network for crime than an unencrypted public...
From: Bitcoin Users Value Privacy
Key Insight from Bitcoin for Institutions:
5. Bitcoin in self-custody is censorship-resistant —it could not have been blocked, frozen, or redirected by the Canadian government.
Chapter: Bitcoin Users Value Privacy
Key Insight from Bitcoin for Institutions:
1. Strategy proves it can be done - a public company can successfully hold bitcoin long-term, but it requires a dominant individual.
Chapter: Strategy (Balance Sheet Strength)
📝 That ability is no small thing. There are a number of tradeoffs to consider, and the reality is that it takes a long time of mulling through one's personal discomfort before the security of your bitcoin allows you to sleep soundly at night.
From: Bitcoin Custody Requires a Higher Understanding of Tradeoffs
Key Insight from Bitcoin for Institutions:
1. FASB ASU 2023-08 enables mark-to-market accounting for bitcoin, removing a major barrier to corporate adoption.
Chapter: Treasury / Balance Sheet - Having Optionality
The Most Powerful Bearer Asset Ever
The non-physical nature of bitcoin is what makes it the most powerful bearer asset to have ever existed. "My great-grandmother came to the US in the early 1900s from Ukraine at the age of ten, when she was put on a boat by herself with five diamond stones sewn into her pillowcase." The miraculous end of the story—somehow finding family and not being robbed—is one of the great inspirations when thinking about what a special store of wealth bitcoin private keys are.
From: Bitcoin for Institutions
Key Insight from Bitcoin for Institutions:
3. Accounting standards shape behavior - FAS87's treatment of pensions caused irrational equity allocations, just as goodwill treatment discouraged bitcoin treasury adoption.
Chapter: Epilogue
Passive Holding
Still valuable—concentrates wealth into hard money—but less powerful than actively building an economy.
From: Bitcoin for Institutions
Monetary Sovereignty
Not beholden to government or Fed monetary policy
From: Bitcoin for Institutions
""He described bitcoin as a 'dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash.'""
— Brian Hirschfield
From: Strategy (Balance Sheet Strength)