Guides / Sizing

How much bitcoin can a small company hold?

A conservative way to size a treasury allocation: protect the business first, then cap what is left. The calculator shows every step.

Last reviewed: 21 October 2026US and UK side by sideEducation only

Education, not advice.

This is general information and education only. It is not financial, investment, tax, accounting, legal or regulatory advice, and it is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold bitcoin or any other asset. It does not take account of your circumstances or those of your company. You must obtain your own official professional advice to confirm this information is correct before acting on it.

Rules change. This information is correct to our understanding at the last-reviewed date, but it may be incomplete or out of date, and official sources take precedence. Bitcoin is volatile. A company that buys it could lose some or all of the money it puts in.

Using this site does not create an adviser or client relationship. IoT Financial is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and is not registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as an investment adviser. Read the full disclaimer.

Start with what the business must protect

A treasury allocation is only appropriate if the company can still pay its people, suppliers and tax bills on time while the allocation is held. So the starting point is not how much bitcoin to hold. It is how much cash the business needs to keep, whatever happens.

This guide uses a simple, conservative method: protect a fixed number of months of operating costs plus known obligations, treat only the money above that as excess, and cap any allocation at a percentage of that excess.

The calculator

Change any input and the results update. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

Tool: allocation sizingruns in your browser

Protected amount
Excess reserves
Excess x cap %
Maximum allocation under this policy
Limited by
Allocation as % of operating cash
Loss in the stress scenario
Months of costs covered after scenario and obligations

Illustration only. The calculator, questionnaire and policy generator produce illustrations from your own inputs. They are not recommendations. You must obtain your own official professional advice to confirm this information is correct before acting on it. Disclaimer.

The formulas

These are exactly the steps the tool runs. You can reproduce them in a spreadsheet.

protected   = monthly_costs x runway_months + known_obligations
excess      = max(0, operating_cash - protected)
by_pct      = excess x (cap_pct / 100)
allocation  = min(by_pct, hard_cap)          # if no hard cap: allocation = by_pct
share       = allocation / operating_cash x 100
scenario    = allocation x (fall_pct / 100)
months_left = (operating_cash - scenario - known_obligations) / monthly_costs

months_left treats the allocation as part of reserves at its reduced scenario value. It shows how many months of costs the company could still cover from all reserves after the stress loss and after paying known obligations.

Choosing the inputs

Runway months. Use the figure your directors are already comfortable with for cash planning. If there is no existing figure, agree one before using this tool.
Known obligations. Include anything already committed in the protected period, especially tax. Leaving tax out is the most common way to overstate excess reserves.
Cap percentage. This is a governance choice, not a calculation. A lower cap means a smaller allocation and a smaller effect on the accounts in any period.
Stress scenario. Pick a fall you would want the company to be able to absorb without changing its plans. The tool does not predict prices.

Accounting and tax notes

The sizing method is the same in both markets. What differs is how the holding is measured in the accounts and taxed when it is sold, and both can change how a given cap looks in reported profit.

USUKUNITED STATES

Accounting

FASB ASU 2023-08 is part of US GAAP, so it matters to companies whose financial statements follow US GAAP. Crypto assets in its scope (fungible, secured by cryptography, on a blockchain or similar ledger, giving no enforceable rights to underlying assets, and not issued by the company or its related parties) are measured at fair value, with changes included in net income. It is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024, and earlier adoption was permitted.

Tax

IRS Notice 2014-21 states that virtual currency is treated as property for federal tax purposes, so a sale or exchange can produce a taxable gain or loss. Basis is generally the cost in US dollars.

Reporting by providers

Brokers report gross proceeds on Form 1099-DA for sales on or after January 1, 2025. From 2026, they must also report basis for covered securities, which are digital assets acquired after 2025 and held in the same custodial account. Corporations, other than S corporations, are generally exempt recipients, so a broker may not issue a Form 1099-DA to a C corporation. The company still reports its own gains and losses.

USUKUNITED KINGDOM

Accounting

UK companies that do not use IFRS commonly report under FRS 102 or, if they qualify, FRS 105 for micro-entities. Neither standard has requirements written specifically for cryptoassets, so the treatment is a judgement to confirm with your own adviser. FRS 105 permits historical cost accounting only, so holdings cannot be revalued to fair value. For IFRS reporters, the IFRS Interpretations Committee concluded in June 2019 that IAS 2 applies to cryptocurrencies held for sale in the ordinary course of business and IAS 38 applies otherwise.

Tax

HMRC does not treat cryptoassets as money or currency. For a company, profits and gains on exchange tokens such as bitcoin fall within Corporation Tax under the trading, loan relationship, intangible fixed asset or chargeable gains rules, depending on its activities and accounting (CRYPTO41000). A company holding tokens as an investment pays Corporation Tax on gains when it disposes of them (CRYPTO41200). Values are converted to pounds sterling at the time of each transaction using a consistent method, and the method is recorded (CRYPTO40100).

Reporting by providers

From 1 January 2026, UK cryptoasset service providers carry out due diligence and collect user and transaction data under the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework, with reports for 2026 due to HMRC by 31 May 2027. A UK company using a provider must give its legal name, main address and company registration number, and some companies must also give details of their controlling persons. Inaccurate or missing details given to a UK provider can lead to a penalty of up to £300.

In either market, discuss the accounting effect with your accountant before choosing a cap.

The sizing method is the same if the allocation is held through an exchange-traded product, such as a spot bitcoin ETF in the US or a crypto ETN in the UK. The accounting and tax notes above are for bitcoin held directly and do not apply in the same way to a fund share or note. See exchange-traded products in the custody guide.

Sources

Primary sources only. Each link was checked on 21 October 2026. Rules change, so confirm the current version with your adviser.

Coming next: a set of working documents for companies that decide to go ahead. See what is coming next.