The Beginning of The Crypto-Which Hunt?

Bitcoin Treasuries is a special site that collects all public and private companies, ETFs, and countries that own bitcoin.

The largest public company owner of bitcoin is MicroStrategy Inc. which has collected Bitcoins in the amount of $5.47 billion. In second place is Tesla Inc with bitcoins for $2.58 billion. In third place is Square Inc. owning bitcoins in the amount of $479 million.

Among private companies, of course, is the infamous former MTGOX exchange with $8.47 billion, Block.one with $8.37 billion and The Tezos Foundation with $1.48 billion.

Among ETFs, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is in the first place, with a volume of BTC of $39.16 billion, in the second is CoinShares / XBT Provider with $4.16 billion, and in the third is Ruffer Investment Company Ltd from the UK with a total amount of BTC of $2.69 billion.

The most interesting thing in the line of countries. There is only one state - Ukraine - with a total bitcoin ownership of $2.77 billion. I think we can assume that now the state considers the cryptocurrency of officials as its property.

Now, jokes aside. The British bank HSBC, which is known as the bank of the British royal family, has suddenly become more strict in its crypto policy. The bank now prohibits its clients from buying shares of public companies that hold bitcoin in their treasuries.

An HSBC client shared a message he received from the bank informing him of a change in cryptocurrency policy, citing Bitcoin and Ethereum as examples. The bank's new policy applies to “products related to or referring to virtual currencies.”

The notice reads:

“Our records show that your HSBC InvestDirect account is holding MICROSTRATEGY INC-A - MSTR-US, a virtual currency product.”

Next comes a warning: “While we permit the holdings of MSTR-US to be held and/or sold/transfered-out in your HSBC InvestDirrect account, new purchases or trasnfers-in will not be allowed.”

This is a very dangerous and far-reaching precedent. In other words, HSBC prohibits its clients from buying shares of publicly traded companies that are not involved in any crypto activity, but simply have Bitcoin in their assets.

In this case, HSBC clients can now be denied to purchase shares of Tesla Inc or any other public company from this list. The question arises: "Is this even legal?" If yes, then I would very much like to see on what basis the bank sent this ban to the client.

And another question, if a client wants to buy a Tesla Model S, then, on the same basis, the bank can also block the payment from the client to a dealership?

Well, and a completely ridiculous question: following this logic, they can now block payments to the Government of Ukraine, since it is also listed in the table of bitcoin owners?

I would like to hope that this is just a sad misunderstanding and not the beginning of a major hunt for crypto-witches.