Publications

February 2025 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Accounting for Bitcoin at Block

By: Charles C.Y. Wang, Seil Kim and Sa-Pyung Sean Shin

Abstract: This case explores Block Inc.'s accounting practices for Bitcoin transactions and their impact on financial reporting. Following a 10% stock price drop after missing revenue estimates in Q3 2024, Block faced scrutiny over its Bitcoin-driven revenue model.... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Bitcoin

May 2021 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Accounting for Bitcoin at Tesla

By: Charles C.Y. Wang and Siyu Zhang

On February 8, 2021, Tesla revealed, through its 10-K filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that it had purchased $1.5 billion of Bitcoin, totaling 7.5% of the company’s cash, and that it planned to accept payments in the cryptocurrency soon. These... View Details

Keywords: Bitcoin; Accounting; Currency; Communication Intention and Meaning; Strategy; Investment Portfolio; Emerging Markets; Risk and Uncertainty; Value Creation

January 2023
Teaching Note

MicroStrategy’s Investment in Bitcoin

By: C. Fritz Foley, Celine Chammas and Donal O'Cofaigh

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 222-048. View Details

Keywords: Bitcoin; Corporate Strategy; Acquisition; Investment Portfolio; Capital Structure; Equity

October 2024
Teaching Note

El Salvador: Launching Bitcoin as Legal Tender

By: Laura Alfaro

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 322-055. In June 2021, Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, surprised the world with the announcement that the country would adopt bitcoin as legal tender, becoming the first nation to do so. Bitcoin was mostly used for trading and had... View Details

Keywords: Bitcoin; Cryptocurrency; Currency; Financial Strategy; Economic Growth; Governance; Macroeconomics; Assets; Government Administration; Latin America; El Salvador

March 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Case

El Salvador: Launching Bitcoin as Legal Tender

By: Laura Alfaro, Carla Larangeira and Ruth Costas

In June 2021, Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, surprised the world with the announcement that the country would adopt bitcoin as legal tender, becoming the first nation to do so. Bitcoin was mostly used for trading and had one of the most volatile track records... View Details

Keywords: Bitcoin; Cryptocurrency; Currency; Financial Strategy; Economic Growth; Governance; Macroeconomics; Assets; Latin America; El Salvador

02 Oct 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Keywords: by Rainer Böhme, Nicolas Christin, Benjamin Edelman & Tyler Moore; Banking

29 Mar 2022
News

Michael Brune’s Next Battle: Clean up Bitcoin

Keywords: Bitcoin; cryptocurrency; crypto

Clubs

Bitcoin & Crypto Club

Article

Bitcoin and Beyond

By: Christian Catalini, Ravi Jagadeesan and Scott Duke Kominers

From the growing attention to Bitcoin and "decentralized finance" to the latest excitement spurred by non-fungible tokens, the crypto economy is here to stay. But will it develop the social consensus and institutional arrangements needed to go fully mainstream? View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Crypto Economy; Finance; Currency

Register to Read

02 Jul 2014
News

Winner of Bitcoin Auction, Tim Draper, Plans to Expand Currency’s Use

Keywords: bitcoin; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance

02 Oct 2017
What Do You Think?

Do Bitcoin and Digital Currency Have a Future?

Credit: pixelfit SUMMING UP How Will Digital Currencies Be Regulated? Blockchain technology has a brighter future than most digital currencies in general and Bitcoin in particular, judging from responses to this month’s column. It’s also... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett; Financial Services

28 May 2019
News

Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble

Bitcoin turned 10 this year, with the currency’s creator, the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, mining the first 50 tokens in January 2009. Yet the cryptocurrency space still feels undefined—a result of both its impenetrability and its... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell

14 Dec 2017
News

Broker Leaks and Bitcoin Biases

01 Sep 2014
News

Ask the Expert: Byte-Testing Bitcoin

Crypto-currency expert Santiago Subotovsky (MBA 2009), principal at Emergence Capital Partners, fields alumni questions on Bitcoin—a digital, virtual, and unregulated currency that allows for anonymous transactions and has quickly moved from the tech underground to the... View Details

Keywords: alumni; Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services; Information

December 2021 (Revised October 2023)
Teaching Note

Accounting for Bitcoin at Tesla

By: Charles C.Y. Wang