Moat · Treasury → Satoshi Institute
Under the current accounting standard, every dollar of Bitcoin on the balance sheet is marked to market through net income each quarter. This shows what that does to reported earnings — and how loud the volatility gets relative to the business underneath it.
Accounting basis: ASU 2023-08 — crypto held at fair value, changes flow through net income. Effective for fiscal years beginning after Dec 15, 2024.
The bell is the range of reported quarterly earnings once Bitcoin is marked to market. The solid line is the operating income the business actually produced. When the bell is wider than that line, the mark is driving the print.
ASU 2023-08, unrealized BTC gains and losses hit net income every period. The pre-2025 impairment-only model — write down, never up — no longer applies. This is the entire reason the volatility is now visible in EPS.impact = allocation × move × (1−t)), since the gain isn't taxable until sale. Watch CAMT: the 15% corporate alternative minimum tax can reach unrealized gains via AFSI for very large filers, which erodes that shield.This is the conversation a board has before the allocation, not after the first bad quarter.
A Satoshi Institute Treasury Assessment runs this against your real financials, your governance triggers, and the disclosure language your auditors will expect.
FAQ
Before FASB ASU 2023-08 (effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024), Bitcoin held as a corporate asset was classified as an indefinite-lived intangible asset. Under that treatment, companies could only write it down (impairment) — they could not write it up, even when price recovered. This created asymmetric, confusing balance sheet presentation.
What changed under ASU 2023-08:
Bitcoin holdings are now measured at fair value each reporting period. Unrealized gains and losses flow through net income. This means:
Why this matters for treasury decisions:
The accounting change didn't change the economics of holding Bitcoin — it changed the visibility of the volatility. A CFO who allocates to Bitcoin now has to explain quarterly P&L swings to analysts who may not model them. The allocation decision is now also a financial communications decision.
What the model shows:
The impact on earnings per share, book value per share, and key financial ratios (debt-to-equity, return on assets) under different Bitcoin price scenarios. The goal is to surface the reporting-layer consequences of an allocation decision before it's made, not after the first volatile quarter.
Methodology
Models the income-statement and balance-sheet impact of corporate BTC holdings under FASB ASU 2023-08 fair-value accounting.
Effective for fiscal years beginning after Dec 15 2024 — cost-less-impairment is gone; all changes flow through net income. The output is a board-readable view of how the position changes the shape of reported results.