Amazon’s (AMZN) shareholders are urging the company to take a page from MicroStrategy’s (MSTR) playbook by diversifying its reserves into bitcoin (BTC) to beat inflation and boost shareholder value.
“Though bitcoin is currently a volatile asset – as Amazon stock has been at times throughout its history – corporations have a responsibility to maximize shareholder value over the long-term as well as the short-term. Diversifying the balance sheet by including some bitcoin solves this problem without taking on too much volatility,” according to a shareholder proposal shared by conservative think tank the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR).
“At minimum, Amazon should evaluate the benefits of holding some, even just 5%, of its assets in Bitcoin,” the proposal added.
Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, has surged 134% this year, topping the $100,000 mark in a move that has outshined every major asset, including gold and the S&P 500. That said, shares in bitcoin holder MicroStrategy have seen even more significant gains, more than 500% versus Amazon’s 49% rise.
The shareholders’ proposal highlighted MSTR’s outperformance, along with BTC adoption by companies like Tesla and Block, while emphasizing that the online retailer has a fiduciary duty to look beyond short-term volatility in assets like BTC, which appreciate more than bonds and add those to its Treasury.
At the end of the third quarter, Amazon had $585 billion in total assets, of which $88 billion represented cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, including Treasury notes, foreign government and corporate bonds. The asset mix isn’t adequately protecting the shareholder value, the proposal said.
Last month, the NCPPR submitted a similar shareholder from Microsoft shareholders, urging the tech giant to diversify into bitcoin. Microsoft shareholders are scheduled to vote on their bitcoin consideration proposal on Dec. 10.
