Why Treasuries Feel Wobbly
& Why Some Companies Now Park BTC in Treasury.
Skipper’s note: Educational only, not financial advice.
When the world’s “safe” anchor (US Treasuries) sways, plenty of decks rattle—rates jump, valuations shift, currencies wobble. That’s why more investors are adding gold, bitcoin, and sometimes ethereum for balance. And yes, a handful of US companies now hold bitcoin on the balance sheet as a treasury slice.
This isn’t about abandoning the ship. It’s about trimming the sails so one gust doesn’t tip you.
Why sovereign debt is so front-of-mind (without the textbook)
Bigger tab, pricier interest. The US keeps refinancing into higher rates. Interest costs climb, deficits stay chunky, and bond buyers want better compensation.
Auctions matter again. When the government sells more bonds, demand isn’t always a lay-up—yields can jump, prices slip, and everyone else reprices risk.
The old “stocks up, bonds cushion” pattern breaks sometimes. In inflationy patches, bonds don’t always protect you. That’s when portfolios feel one-sided.
Net effect: investors don’t hate Treasuries; they just don’t want to rely on them for every kind of weather.
Why some investors diversify with gold, bitcoin & ethereum
Gold: nobody’s liability, long history as a store of value.
Bitcoin: fixed supply, portable, runs outside the banking calendar.
Ethereum: exposure to on-chain activity (smart contracts, tokenisation, stablecoins).
Different engines, different winds. Not risk-free, just not the same risk.
The corporate twist: bitcoin in treasury
A few high-profile US firms wrote the playbook: board policy, custody controls, and (more recently) cleaner accounting treatment. Motivation isn’t moon-shots—it’s a small non-sovereign slice alongside cash and bonds. Most companies still hold plain cash; a minority now add a measured BTC allocation so their treasury isn’t 100% pinned to one policy regime.
Will every CFO do it? No. But it’s no longer a stunt, it’s an option.
How to get aboard
My personal tack (not advice): ETF first. One trade through a CHESS-sponsored broker, tidy statements, simple rebalancing.
Before I buy, I check:
What is it exactly? Spot-backed vs futures-based vs note.
Who’s minding the asset? Custodian, vault/cold storage, insurance.
Costs & behaviour: MER, spreads, and how closely it tracks its benchmark on wild days.
Liquidity: Depth on screen and in the underlying market.
Other routes, if you want more hands-on:
Gold, direct: reputable dealers or vaulted storage (mind purity, spreads, insurance, sell-back).
Crypto, direct: AU-compliant exchange → (optionally) self-custody via hardware wallet. More control, more responsibility.
A simple way to frame it
Keep your core portfolio doing the heavy lifting.
Add a measured slice of assets that don’t live and die by sovereign balance sheets.
Favour tools you can actually manage when markets are jumpy. For me, that’s ETFs.
Small, steady, and review on a schedule. That’s how you stay upright when the water gets lumpy.
