A group of conservative McDonald’s shareholders has urged the fast-food giant to adopt Bitcoin as part of its corporate treasury strategy, but the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the company could reject the proposal without facing any repercussions.
The initiative was spearheaded by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank that also owns shares in McDonald’s. In a formal letter to the company, the group argued that Bitcoin offers superior liquidity and growth potential compared to traditional assets such as cash, bonds and even real estate.
“McDonald’s is widely viewed, including by former CFO and Chairman Harry Sonneborn, as a real estate company that sells hamburgers,” the group wrote, adding: “Real estate has been a more reliable store of value than cash and bonds, but it will not appreciate as much over time as Bitcoin and is not as liquid.”
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The proposal likened McDonald’s potential Bitcoin investment to corporate moves by companies like MicroStrategy, which is run by Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor and has invested heavily in BTC. More recently, GameStop announced plans to invest $1.5 billion in Bitcoin. But not all companies are on board: Microsoft shareholders rejected a similar proposal last December.
Following this filing, McDonald’s legal team reached out to the SEC to request confirmation that the company could exempt the Bitcoin proposal from being discussed at its annual shareholder meeting in May. The SEC agreed in a letter.
“There appears to be some basis for your view that the company could have excluded the proposal,” the SEC said. “In our view, the proposal relates to the company’s ordinary business activities. Accordingly, we would not recommend to the Commission that it impose sanctions if the company were to remove the proposal from its voting documents.”
The SEC’s response clears the way for McDonald’s to put the Bitcoin debate aside, at least for now, signaling that companies are wary of diving into the volatile world of cryptocurrencies despite pressure from some investors.
*This is not investment advice.