Written down: Accounting drill keeps bitcoins from getting wider acceptance

Accountants are fitting crypto into existing categories. As an intangible asset, Bitcoin's book value can go only one way: down.

Accounting firms are restricting corporations from holding the cryptocurrency as assets even as they give free rein to venture capital firms — such as SoftBank Group Corp. — to invest in equally risky and volatile unicorns. MicroStrategy Inc. and Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. own Bitcoin but they are exceptions. One survey found that only 5 per cent of finance executives plan to invest in Bitcoin this year. 

That mindset is getting in the way of the broader adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptos because companies holding such digital currencies bear an accounting risk: big asset write-downs.

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