While Bitcoin has become a regular topic in financial markets, Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich says its absence from corporate balance sheets has little to do with disbelief or rejection.
In his view, most companies do not avoid Bitcoin after careful analysis – they never discuss it at all.
Key Takeaways
Most companies ignore Bitcoin not because they reject it, but because it never enters internal discussions.
Bitcoin challenges traditional treasury frameworks, making it uncomfortable to raise at board level.
The few firms that adopt Bitcoin are typically willing to endure long periods of skepticism while executing a long-term strategy.
Gerovich argues that the gap between firms that hold Bitcoin and those that do not is created long before any formal decision is made. For most management teams, Bitcoin simply sits outside the mental and institutional framework used to manage corporate capital.
Why Bitcoin never reaches the boardroom
According to Gerovich, Bitcoin fails to enter internal conversations because it does not fit neatly into traditional treasury models. Cash management discussions tend to revolve around low-volatility instruments, predictable returns, and established accounting treatment. Bitcoin challenges all three.
As a result, management teams default to familiar options rather than exploring alternatives that could raise uncomfortable questions from boards, auditors, or investors. In many cases, no one inside the organization is incentivized to introduce an idea that could complicate governance or trigger reputational risk. Bitcoin is therefore neither approved nor rejected – it is filtered out before evaluation begins.
The cost of being early and misunderstood
Gerovich also highlights a less visible barrier: perception risk. The small number of companies that do allocate to Bitcoin usually accept that markets may misinterpret their decision for years. Shareholders may see the move as speculative, analysts may question discipline, and short-term price swings can dominate the narrative regardless of long-term intent.
In conventional corporate culture, that tradeoff is unattractive. Executives are often rewarded for alignment with consensus and punished for deviating from it. Bitcoin requires a different mindset – one that prioritizes long-term execution over immediate approval. This, Gerovich suggests, is the real threshold most companies are unwilling to cross.
From this perspective, corporate Bitcoin adoption is not primarily about price forecasts or macro views. It is about whether leadership teams are willing to operate outside established norms and tolerate prolonged misunderstanding while a strategy unfolds.
