Another Publicly Traded Company Adds Bitcoin to Its Balance Sheet

Another American publicly traded company has adopted the Bitcoin standard.

Healthcare company Cosmos Health (NASDAQ: COSM) announced Monday it plans to add Bitcoin, the biggest digital coin by market capitalization, and Ethereumthe second biggest, to its balance sheet.

The company, which develops and sells drugs and medical equipment in Europe, also said it was working to accommodate clients who want to make payments in crypto.

“We view select crypto assets, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, not only as potential hedges against inflation and currency devaluation but also as diversification tools offering substantial upside potential,” Cosmos Health CEO Greg Siokas said in a press release.

The company’s statement added that it would in the future consider adding “other cryptocurrencies and blockchain-related assets.” It didn’t say how much it plans to invest in digital assets or if it has already begun buying up BTC and ETH. Representatives for Cosmos Health did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s questions.

Cosmos Health stock is up today more than 17%, with shares valued at $0.73.

The company is following in the steps of software company MicroStrategy, another Nasdaq-listed firm that has put crypto on its balance sheet. Since August 2020, MicroStrategy has bought Bitcoin as a way to get bigger returns for shareholders and fight inflation.

It now holds 331,200 Bitcoins—worth over $30 billion at the coin’s current price of $91,360—and mainly works to securitize the cryptocurrency: investors can buy shares in the company as a proxy to buying and holding the virtual coins themselves.

Microsoft also made headlines last month after a Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed that its upcoming shareholders meeting would ask investors to vote on whether the software giant should buy Bitcoin for its own treasury.

The computer company advised shareholders to vote against the proposal of investing in Bitcoin, as Microsoft’s management “already carefully considers this topic,” the filing said.