Four companies buy bitcoin on leverage as NASDAQ lists options
November has marked the arrival of a new class of bitcoin investor. Just as the progressive introductions of custodial exchanges, publicly-listed trusts, futures, and spot ETFs ushered in new types of capital allocators, this month is a peak for a different type of bitcoin product: corporate leverage. This week alone, four public companies have added billions of dollars in collective debt to their balance sheets in order to buy bitcoin: MicroStrategy, Marathon Holdings, Semler Scientific, and MetaPlanet. In addition, Blackrock suddenly announced the listing of options — yet another form of leverage — atop its flagship spot bitcoin ETF, IBIT. The introduction of options on Blackrock’s institutional, marginable, price-tracking ETF will allow sophisticated market participants access to powerful hedging strategies. IBIT options are scheduled to commence trading on NASDAQ today. For context, bitcoin has rallied 32% since the start of the month, and corporate leve...