KPMG Canada adds crypto to its corporate treasury

According to a Monday announcement, the Canadian branch of accounting giant KPMG allocates Bitcoin and Ether to its corporate treasury. The firm’s executives “expect to see a lot of growth” in DeFi, NFT, and metaverse areas in the years to come.

“Cryptoassets are a maturing asset class,” stated Benjie Thomas, the firm’s Canadian managing partner for advisory services. “This investment reflects our belief that institutional adoption of cryptoassets and blockchain technology will continue to grow and become a regular part of the asset mix.”

KPMG acquired Bitcoin and Ethereum on its balance sheet through Gemini, as the two companies tweeted on February 7.

According to the statement, the firm is also adding carbon offsets to maintain a net-zero carbon transaction to deliver on their ESG commitments.

KPMG in Canada established a governance committee with stakeholders from Finance, Risk Management, Advisory, and Audit and Tax to provide oversight and approve the treasury allocation. Specialists also assessed the tax and accounting implications of the transaction.

Given its suite of crypto-related advisory services, the firm would move in this direction is perhaps unsurprising.

“The cryptoasset industry continues to grow and mature, and it needs to be considered by financial services and institutional investors,” KPMG Canada’s cryptoassets and blockchain services co-leader Kareem Sadek claimed. “We’ve invested in a strong cryptoassets practice, and we will continue to enhance and build on our capabilities across Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), and the Metaverse, to name a few. We expect to see a lot of growth in these areas in the years to come.”

KPMG Canada is the latest big company to add cryptocurrency to its balance sheet. Software firm MicroStrategy kicked off the trend in August 2020, when it bought $250 million worth of Bitcoin. According to Bitcoin Treasuries data, it has continued to buy Bitcoin ever since and currently holds $5.5 billion in the biggest digital asset.

Other companies, like payments company Square and electric car company Tesla, also followed suit. They currently hold $355 million and $1.9 billion, respectively.

KPMG is a British-Dutch multinational and one of the “big four” accounting organizations, which includes PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, and Ernst & Young.