The wonkier corners of Crypto Twitter were buzzing on Wednesday on news that the Financial Accounting Standard Board, a.k.a. FASB, had unanimously passed a measure that will bring a big change to how companies hold crypto on their balance sheets. This has immediate implications for the likes of Bitcoin-buying Block, Tesla, and Microstrategy—and could potentially lead other large firms to consider adding crypto to their treasuries.
Most people are understandably reluctant to dive into the finer points of corporate accounting, but the big change is not hard to grok. It stems from the fact that, for the longest time, the head bean counters stayed silent on crypto—refusing to provide guidance for how to value it on a balance sheet. This led to Bitcoin being chucked into a category called intangible assets along with things like trademarks and goodwill. In practice, this meant that any company holding crypto had to mark down its value as an "impairment" if the price dropped—but could not record a gain if the price shot back up.
