Stone Ridge makes more than 10,000 BTC its primary treasury reserve asset
Stone Ridge Holdings Group, a $10 billion asset manager, reveals purchase of over 10,000 BTC as part of treasury reserve strategy.
On October 13, 2020, Stone Ridge makes more than 10,000 BTC its primary treasury reserve asset. Stone Ridge Holdings Group, a $10 billion asset manager, reveals purchase of over 10,000 BTC as part of treasury reserve strategy.
The announcement came from Ross Stevens, Stone Ridge's CEO and founder, who explained that the purchase represented the company's assessment that Bitcoin offered superior long-term return potential and inflation protection compared to holding cash or traditional fixed income in an environment of zero interest rates and aggressive monetary expansion.
Stone Ridge's Bitcoin adoption was particularly significant because of the firm's conservative reputation and focus on insurance and reinsurance businesses that typically maintained very conservative investment approaches. For an asset manager serving the insurance industry—which was heavily regulated and required maintaining adequate reserves to pay claims—to allocate meaningfully to Bitcoin suggested that cryptocurrency was achieving legitimacy even among the most risk-averse institutional investors.
Stone Ridge managed assets for insurance companies and operated its own insurance businesses, making its investment decisions subject to careful scrutiny from regulators, actuaries, and risk management professionals who needed to ensure that reserve assets would maintain value and remain accessible when needed to pay claims.