Microsoft shareholders voted down a resolution to add Bitcoin to the tech giant’s balance sheet. The resolution, put forth by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), framed the move as a way to diversify the company’s profits and enhance shareholder value.

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has formed a strategic partnership with Circle, the company behind the popular USDC stablecoin to accelerate its adoption. 

JPMorgan analysts have raised their price targets for several Bitcoin mining firms to reflect a valuation approach that considers the miners’ power infrastructure and their Bitcoin holdings.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Microsoft Shareholders Reject Bitcoin Balance Sheet Proposal
• Binance and Circle Partner to Boost USDC Adoption
• JPMorgan Analysts Raise Bitcoin Mining Stocks’ Price Targets

Microsoft Shareholders Reject Proposal to Add Bitcoin to Company's Balance Sheet

Microsoft shareholders voted down a resolution to add Bitcoin to the tech giant’s balance sheet. The resolution, put forth by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), framed the move as a way to diversify the company’s profits and enhance shareholder value.

Microsoft’s board of directors recommended shareholders reject the resolution, emphasizing the company’s existing strategy of considering a wide range of investable assets within its investment framework. 

The NCPPR, a pro-free-market think tank, included as part of its proposal a pre-recorded video that said the tech firm couldn’t afford to “miss the next technology wave, and Bitcoin is that wave.” 

The proposal, put forth by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C., framed the initiative as a means to diversify profits and enhance shareholder value. 

Microsoft has a history of having a measured approach to cryptocurrency. In 2014, the firm briefly accepted Bitcoin payments, before dropping them briefly in 2018 over concerns surrounding its volatility.

Binance and Circle Partner to Boost USDC Adoption

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has formed a strategic partnership with Circle, the company behind the popular USDC stablecoin to accelerate its adoption. 

The partnership will see Circle’s USDC become more widely available to Binance’s over 240 million customers for trading, savings, and payments. The exchange is also set to adopt the stablecoin as a “vital dollar stablecoin” for its own corporate treasury. 

In a statement, Binance’s Chief Executive Officer Richard Teng said:

"Through our strategic partnership, our users will have even more opportunities to use USDC on our platform, including more USDC trading pairs, special promotions on USDC across trading, and other products on Binance.”

Circle has positioned USDC, which has a $40 billion market capitalization, as a more regulated stablecoin compared to alternatives including Tether’s USDT, whose market capitalization is of about $140 billion. 

JPMorgan Analysts Raise Bitcoin Mining Stocks’ Price Targets

JPMorgan analysts have raised their price targets for several Bitcoin mining firms to reflect a valuation approach that considers the miners’ power infrastructure and their Bitcoin holdings.

The upgraded price targets include those for MARA Holdings (MARA), CleanSpark (CLSK), Riot Platforms (RIOT) and IREN (IREN), with all four of these companies already trading near or above the revised price targets according to analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce.

In their report the analysts noted that they previously “valued Bitcoin miners based on the four-year gross profit opportunity for each operator,” and that they were expanding this framework to incorporate the “value of each company’s land and power assets” as well as a “HODL premium.”

That premium, they wrote, gives “miners credit for holding Bitcoin on their balance like MicroStrategy.” Nasdaq-listed business intelligence firm MicroStrategy is the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, with 423,650 BTC worth $41.5 billion on its balance sheet.

JPMorgan’s revised price targets are for CLSK to trade at $17, IREN at $15, MARA at $23, and RIOT at $16.

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