Data checked 9 November 2026. This is original analysis of official filings by IoT Financial. It reports aggregate counts only and names no company. A mention in a filing is not proof that a company holds bitcoin, and nothing here is advice to buy, sell or hold it. No price predictions.
Key findings
- UK, rare but rising. In October 2026, 4.1 in every 10,000 electronically filed UK accounts described crypto as an asset or in an accounting policy (142 of 345,031). In October 2017 it was 0.05 in 10,000.
- UK micro-entity accounts say almost nothing. Across all of 2025, 4 of 416,638 FRS 105 accounts had such wording, against 227 of 433,970 FRS 102 accounts. Silence in micro-entity accounts is not evidence that a company holds none.
- UK accounts mostly treat crypto as an intangible asset. Of 236 2025 accounts with crypto asset or policy wording, 62% used "intangible" near the crypto term and 55% used fair value, market value or revaluation wording. Only 7% named bitcoin itself.
- US, smaller filers mention bitcoin more often than larger ones. In 2026 filings to 9 November, 6.2% of 10-K filers with public float under $250 million mentioned bitcoin (164 of 2,641), against 2.5% of larger filers. In 2015 the small-filer figure was 0.5%.
- US holdings are now visible in structured data. After ASU 2023-08, 111 companies with float under $250 million tagged a positive crypto asset fair value in 2026 XBRL data so far, up from 15 in 2024. About 50% of small filers that mentioned bitcoin in a 2026 10-K also had such a tag.
- Latest year in full. Counting every UK company once over November 2025 to October 2026, 4.0 in 10,000 non-dormant companies had accounts describing crypto as an asset. In the US, 62 smaller reporting companies said in a 10-K that they held bitcoin, about 2.2% of those filing. See the full count.
What this study measures
Most bitcoin treasury coverage is about a few large listed companies. Small companies are harder to see. This study counts how often the accounts and annual reports of smaller companies in the UK and US mention bitcoin or other crypto, and what words they use about it. It separates three things that are easy to confuse:
- A mention: the word appears anywhere in the filing, including risk factors, a client list or a company name.
- Asset or policy wording (UK): the crypto term sits within 150 characters of accounting words such as intangible, investment, fair value, cost, impairment or holdings. Hand checks show this is a good, but not perfect, signal that the accounts describe crypto the company held.
- A tagged balance (US): the company reported a positive crypto asset fair value in its structured XBRL data, a field that came into use with ASU 2023-08.
The two countries publish different documents in different formats, so the UK and US figures are not directly comparable. Choose your country.
The short version: UK
- Crypto wording is rare: about 4.1 in 10,000 accounts in October 2026.
- It has risen in most years since 2017, with a step up in 2022 and again in 2026.
- Almost all of it is in FRS 102 accounts. Micro-entity accounts under FRS 105 rarely carry the notes where it would appear.
- Accounts most often describe crypto as an intangible asset, often with a revaluation or fair value policy.
UK: sample and method
Source. The Companies House Accounts Data Product: the accounts filed electronically in iXBRL or XBRL. Companies House says this is about 75% of the accounts it expects each year, so paper and PDF filings are missing. Most companies in it are small or micro-entities.
Source: Companies House: Free Accounts Data Product: daily files (accounts filed electronically, about 75% of accounts), Companies House: Accounts Data Product: historic monthly files.
Trend sample. Every accounts file published in October each year from 2015 to 2025 (the monthly archive files), plus the daily files published from 1 to 31 October 2026. One month per year keeps the seasonal mix similar. Deep sample. All 3 monthly files published for 2025, 852,030 accounts after removing duplicates of the same company and balance sheet date, used for the "how" and sector tables.
Matching. We removed the markup, then searched the text for bitcoin, cryptocurrency, crypto asset, cryptoasset, crypto, ethereum and stablecoin. "Digital asset" on its own was counted separately and left out, because it often means software, websites or media. The accounting standard comes from the iXBRL tags (FRS 105, FRS 102, IFRS) with a text fallback. A crypto word followed straight away by "Ltd", "Limited", "plc" or "LLP" was treated as part of a company name and ignored.
Hand check. We read 40 randomly drawn accounts that matched a crypto term and judged each one by hand without seeing the classifier result. 32 described crypto the company held or had held, 6 matched only because of a company name, and 2 were other mentions. The classifier agreed with the hand check on 40 of 40: it flagged 32 of the 32 holding cases and 0 of the others. Treat the counts as estimates with that error rate in mind.
UK: how often accounts mention crypto
Even at its highest the rate is tiny. In October 2026, 168 accounts used a crypto term at all and 142 described it as an asset or in a policy, out of 345,031. Only 17 named bitcoin specifically. Most UK accounts say "cryptocurrency" or "crypto assets" and do not name the coin.
UK: FRS 105 versus FRS 102
The gap is large and it is mostly about what each standard requires. Micro-entity accounts under FRS 105 usually contain a balance sheet and very few notes, and they are not required to include an accounting policies note. A micro-entity that holds bitcoin may simply show it inside a line such as "current assets" or "fixed assets" with no words to find. FRS 102 accounts, including Section 1A small company accounts, normally include accounting policies, which is where most crypto wording appears. See FRS 105 and FRS 102 and UK accounting under FRS 102.
Source: FRC: FRS 105: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable to the Micro-entities Regime, FRC: FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland.
UK: how the accounts describe it
From the 2025 deep sample: the 236 accounts with crypto asset or policy wording, and how often each word appears within 150 characters of the crypto term. One account can use several, so shares add up to more than 100%.
| Wording near the crypto term | Accounts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Called an intangible asset | 147 | 62% |
| Called an investment | 96 | 41% |
| Fair value, market value or revaluation | 130 | 55% |
| Cost basis named (at cost, cost less, historical cost) | 107 | 45% |
| Impairment mentioned | 97 | 41% |
| Stock or inventory | 10 | 4% |
| Wallet mentioned | 3 | 1% |
| Exchange or platform mentioned | 17 | 7% |
| Custody, cold storage or private keys | 0 | 0% |
| Bitcoin named (not only "crypto") | 17 | 7% |
The common pattern is an intangible fixed asset carried at cost or under the revaluation model, with impairment or amortisation wording. Some accounts call it a current asset investment and a few call it stock. Custody is rarely described: words such as wallet, cold storage or private keys are uncommon in small company accounts. That fits what the law asks of these accounts, not a lack of custody risk.
UK: which sectors
The sector comes from the first SIC code in the Companies House company data snapshot of 1 November 2026. Companies that have since been dissolved are not in it. Groups with fewer than 5 accounts are merged so that no small group can point to a single company.
| Sector (SIC 2007 section) | Accounts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| J Information and communication | 64 | 27% |
| M Professional and technical | 36 | 15% |
| K Finance and insurance | 27 | 11% |
| L Real estate | 22 | 9% |
| G Wholesale and retail | 17 | 7% |
| N Administrative and support | 16 | 7% |
| F Construction | 14 | 6% |
| Not in current register | 14 | 6% |
| Q Health and social work | 7 | 3% |
| S Other services | 6 | 3% |
| Other groups (each fewer than 5) | 13 | 6% |
Source: Companies House: Free Company Data Product (basic company data, including SIC codes), Companies House: Standard industrial classification of economic activities (SIC 2007) list.
UK: limitations
- Only electronically filed accounts are included, about 75% of the total according to Companies House.
- Text matching misses holdings that are not described in words, which is common in micro-entity accounts, and can still count some mentions that are not holdings.
- October samples are one month of filings each year. Filing patterns vary with year ends and deadlines, and the October 2026 sample comes from daily files rather than a monthly file.
- Sector codes are a current snapshot and are self-declared by companies.
- We did not total amounts held. Figures in small company accounts are often combined with other assets and are not tagged consistently.
The short version: US
- 6.2% of small-float 10-K filers mentioned bitcoin in 2026 filings so far, up from 0.5% in 2015 and 3.8% in 2025.
- Smaller filers mention bitcoin more often than larger ones in every year of the sample.
- Structured holding data is new: 111 small-float companies tagged a positive crypto fair value in 2026 so far.
- Custody wording is more common than in UK accounts: 55% of 2026 small-filer bitcoin mentions also mention a custodian, but only 11% mention multi-signature.
US: sample and method
Universe. Every original 10-K filed each calendar year from 2015 to 9 November 2026, from the EDGAR quarterly form indexes, counted once per company per year. Amendments (10-K/A) are left out. Exchange traded commodity trusts (SIC 6221) are left out of the mention counts, because they are funds rather than operating companies.
Source: SEC: EDGAR full-index files (quarterly form indexes).
Size. The SEC's smaller reporting company test starts with public float under $250 million. We used each company's most recent public float fact (dei:EntityPublicFloat) from the SEC XBRL frames that was dated on or before the filing and within about 16 months of it. This is a proxy: the full test also has a revenue route. Between 13% and 19% of filers each year had no usable float fact and are shown separately.
Source: SEC: Smaller reporting companies: public float under $250 million test, SEC: EDGAR application programming interfaces, including XBRL frames.
Mentions. SEC EDGAR full-text search for "bitcoin" in 10-K filings, which covers the main document and its exhibits. For "how", we ran the same search with a second term (for example "bitcoin" and "custodian") and counted filings where both appear in the same document. Both words in one document does not mean they appear in the same sentence.
Source: SEC: EDGAR full-text search FAQ (filings since 2001, including exhibits), SEC: Accessing EDGAR data (fair access policy).
US: how often 10-Ks mention bitcoin
The small-filer share roughly doubled between 2015 and 2018 (0.5% to 1.2%), rose again from 2022, and in 2026 reached 6.2%. Some of these mentions are risk factors, plans or a reverse merger story, not holdings. The next chart shows holdings that are tagged in the data.
US: holdings tagged in structured data
These tags arrived with ASU 2023-08, which requires many crypto assets to be measured at fair value with changes in net income, for years starting after 15 December 2024 with early adoption allowed. Before that, most companies carried bitcoin as an indefinite-lived intangible asset at cost less impairment, and there was no standard tag for the balance. So the jump from 15 small-float companies in 2024 to 96 in 2025 is mostly a change in reporting, not only new buyers. See US accounting under ASU 2023-08.
Source: FASB: ASU 2023-08, Intangibles: Goodwill and Other, Crypto Assets (Subtopic 350-60).
US: what else the filings say
For small-float filers whose 10-K mentions bitcoin, how many also use each term somewhere in the same document. The base is 106 filers in 2025 and 164 in 2026 to 9 November.
| Also in the same document | 2025 | 2026 to 9 Nov |
|---|---|---|
| ASU 2023-08 cited | 58 (55%) | 87 (53%) |
| "Indefinite-lived" (the older intangible model) | 36 (34%) | 59 (36%) |
| Custodian | 46 (43%) | 91 (55%) |
| Private keys | 39 (37%) | 76 (46%) |
| Cold storage | 20 (19%) | 35 (21%) |
| Self-custody | 11 (10%) | 28 (17%) |
| Multi-signature or multisig | 7 (7%) | 18 (11%) |
| "Treasury reserve" | 14 (13%) | 41 (25%) |
| "Accept bitcoin" | 18 (17%) | 18 (11%) |
Custody language in 10-Ks is often in risk factors about a third-party custodian or the loss of private keys. Multi-signature set-ups are rarely described. Whatever a filing says, this site does not recommend single-signature custody for company funds; see custody options.
US: which sectors
The SIC division EDGAR shows for each small-float filer that mentioned bitcoin in a 2026 10-K (164 filers). Groups with fewer than 5 filers are merged. Blank check companies (SIC 6770) are shown on their own because many mention bitcoin as a possible merger target.
| Sector (SIC division) | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Finance, insurance and real estate | 61 | 37% |
| Manufacturing | 37 | 23% |
| Services | 34 | 21% |
| Blank check (SIC 6770) | 12 | 7% |
| Wholesale | 6 | 4% |
| Not stated | 5 | 3% |
| Other groups (each fewer than 5) | 9 | 5% |
US: limitations
- Public float is a proxy for smaller reporting company status, and some filers have no usable float fact.
- Full-text search finds words, not holdings. Co-occurrence is per document, not per sentence.
- XBRL tags depend on how each company and its filing agent tagged the data. Companies that tag crypto with their own custom elements are missed.
- 2026 is a part year. Companies with non-December year ends file at different times, so part-year shares can move.
- Only SEC registrants are covered. Most small US companies are private and file nothing public.
Reading the two countries together
The UK sample is mostly private small companies filing statutory accounts. The US sample is SEC registrants, which are public or have public securities, even when they are small. A UK rate per 10,000 accounts and a US share of 10-K filers measure different things and should not be set side by side as one league table. What both show is that disclosure of crypto by smaller companies is still uncommon, that it has grown, and that what you can see depends heavily on the reporting rules.
For a company thinking about holding bitcoin, the practical point is about records rather than peers. Whatever the accounts show, the board will need a written policy, clear custody, and records an accountant or auditor can follow. See treasury policy, audit evidence and accountant's corner.
Latest year in full: November 2025 to October 2026
The trend above samples one month a year. For the most recent 12 months we also counted everything: every accounts file in the 12 Companies House monthly archives, and every 10-K filed with the SEC, with each US smaller reporting company that mentions bitcoin read by hand. This is a second, independent method, so its definitions differ from the trend sample. Both are explained below, with why their UK figures differ.
Download the CSV for the latest year (aggregate figures)
UK: every company, counted once
Population. 3,741,293 electronically filed accounts for 3,502,996 companies, published November 2025 to October 2026. We kept each company's most recent accounts and removed dormant companies (the XBRL dormant flag or SIC 99999), leaving 2,945,940 companies.
- 1,178 companies have accounts that describe cryptoassets as a company asset: 4.0 per 10,000 (95% interval on the count 3.8 to 4.2). A blind hand check of 40 random cases found 39 correctly labelled (87% to 100%).
- Only 115 of them name bitcoin. A further 74 mention a crypto term without describing a holding; in a sample of 25 of those, 5 were in fact holders, so the main count is slightly low.
- By standard: 10.3 per 10,000 for full FRS 102, 7.9 for FRS 102 Section 1A, 0.09 for FRS 105 micro-entities. This matches the trend sample: micro-entity accounts rarely carry the notes where a holding would be named.
Words near the crypto term in those 1,178 accounts: fair value or revaluation wording only 260, cost or impairment wording only 224, both 292, neither 402. Headings: intangible 750, investment 430, current or financial asset 140, stock 41. These are keyword counts, not a review of each policy.
UK: why 4.12 and 4.0 per 10,000 differ
The trend sample gives 4.12 per 10,000 for October 2026; the full year count gives 4.0. They look almost the same, but they measure different things, and the closeness is partly because two differences pull in opposite directions.
| Trend sample (October 2026) | Latest year in full | |
|---|---|---|
| Files | Daily files published in October 2026: 345,031 accounts | All 12 monthly files, November 2025 to October 2026: 3,741,293 accounts |
| Unit | Each accounts file | Each company once, using its latest accounts |
| Dormant companies | Kept in the denominator | Removed |
| Wording rule | Crypto term within 150 characters of accounting words | Crypto term in the same sentence as accounting words, with sentences that negate or describe plans dropped, or next to a figure |
| Result | 142 of 345,031: 4.12 per 10,000 files | 1,178 of 2,945,940: 4.0 per 10,000 companies |
- On a per file basis with dormant companies kept, the full year rule gives 3.4 per 10,000 across all 12 months and 3.4 for the October 2026 monthly file (101 of 295,738). That is below the trend sample's 4.12, most likely because the stricter sentence rule labels fewer files, though the two October file sets also differ (see below).
- Removing dormant companies and counting each company once shrinks the denominator from 3,741,293 files to 2,945,940 companies, about a fifth, while the count falls only from 1,259 to 1,178. That lifts the full year figure to 4.0 per 10,000.
- Months vary. With the full year rule, monthly rates ran from 2.2 (Feb 2026) to 4.6 (Sep 2026) per 10,000 files, so any single month carries seasonal noise. The October 2026 daily files and the October 2026 monthly file also hold different numbers of accounts, and we have not established why; treat month level comparisons with care.
- Reading them together: the trend sample is the better guide to change over time, because its rule and month are the same every year. The full year count is the better guide to the level in the latest year, because it covers every company once.
US: smaller reporting companies, hand checked
Population. Every Form 10-K filed from 1 November 2025 to 31 October 2026: 6,707 filings by 6,566 filers, from the EDGAR form index. Full text search found "bitcoin" in 10-Ks from 312 filers. We removed 76 funds, trusts and exchange traded products. Here, unlike the float proxy above, smaller reporting company status comes from the check box on each 10-K cover page.
Source: SEC: EDGAR full index (quarterly form.idx files), SEC: EDGAR full text search, SEC: Smaller reporting company definition (2018 amendments).
- 175 smaller reporting companies mention bitcoin. We read the relevant passages of every one: 62 said they held bitcoin at the year end or bought it during or after the year, 12 were unclear, and the rest mentioned it only as a plan, a risk, a business line, client assets, or as a blank check company target. No company is named here.
- A random sample of 300 filers suggests about 2,801 of the 6,566 are smaller reporting companies (37% to 48%). So about 2.2% of smaller reporting companies filing 10-Ks disclosed bitcoin held, with a plausible range of 2.0% to 3.0%.
- 48 of the 62 are listed on Nasdaq or the NYSE; most of the rest trade over the counter. 60 also tag crypto asset figures in XBRL.
- Of the 57 larger operating filers that mention bitcoin, an automated rule flags 26 as holders. These were not hand checked.
Method for the latest year
| Step | UK (Companies House) | US (SEC EDGAR) |
|---|---|---|
| Population | All files in the 12 monthly Accounts Data Product archives for November 2025 to October 2026 | All Form 10-K filings in the quarterly form indexes, 1 November 2025 to 31 October 2026 |
| Unit | Company, latest accounts in the period; dormant companies removed | Filer, latest 10-K in the period |
| Search terms | bitcoin; crypto asset, currency, token or coin; digital asset, currency or token (only with other crypto words in the file); virtual currency; ethereum; stablecoin; case insensitive, after removing the company's registered name | Full text search for "bitcoin" in 10-K documents and exhibits |
| Classification | Holding label: the term in a sentence with accounting words and no negation or plan wording, or next to a figure | Funds and trusts removed by SIC code 6221 or name; cover page check box for size; every smaller reporting company read by hand |
| Validation | Blind hand check: 40 labelled holders, 25 labelled mentions | Random sample of 300 filers for the share that are smaller reporting companies |
| Uncertainty | Wilson 95% intervals | Unclear cases and the denominator interval combined into a range |
Limits that apply on top of those above: the 12 month window mostly covers years ending in 2025; filings that only say "BTC" or only "digital assets" are missed; and Companies House keeps each monthly file for only 12 months, so an exact rerun needs saved copies. SEC requests used a declared user agent and stayed well under 10 a second.
Download the data
Download the CSV: trend, 2015 to 2026 (aggregate figures)
Download the CSV: latest year in full (aggregate figures)
One row per figure, with columns: country, source, sample, metric, value, denominator, unit and note. It contains aggregate counts and rates only. It has no company names, numbers or CIKs, and groups smaller than five are merged.
Credit and licences
- UK data: contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0, from the Companies House Accounts Data Product and Company Data Product. Companies House states that it is not responsible for how its data is used.
- US data: from SEC EDGAR (full-text search, full-index files and XBRL frames), retrieved under the SEC fair access policy with a declared user agent and rate limit.
- Analysis: please credit "IoT Financial analysis of Companies House and SEC EDGAR data, iotfinancial.net" and link to this page.
Source: The National Archives: Open Government Licence v3.0, GOV.UK: Companies House data products, including "Using Companies House data".
Open points
- Amounts held: a later version could total the balances where accounts state them clearly.
- UK classifier: a larger hand check would narrow the error range.
- US: matching to the exact smaller reporting company tick box on the cover page would replace the float proxy.
- Refresh: the method can be rerun on new monthly files. Any change will be noted on the corrections page.
Read next
- Small company bitcoin treasuries, listed companies that disclosed holdings.
- Case notes from real filings, accounting, custody and funding.
- UK accounting under FRS 102, cost or revaluation and impairment.
- US accounting under ASU 2023-08, fair value and disclosures.
- Why some companies hold bitcoin, and why most do not.
Sources
Primary sources only. Each link was checked on 9 November 2026. Rules change, so confirm the current version with your adviser.
- Companies HouseFree Accounts Data Product: daily files (accounts filed electronically, about 75% of accounts)
- Companies HouseAccounts Data Product: historic monthly files
- FRCFRS 105: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable to the Micro-entities Regime
- FRCFRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland
- Companies HouseFree Company Data Product (basic company data, including SIC codes)
- Companies HouseStandard industrial classification of economic activities (SIC 2007) list
- SECEDGAR full-index files (quarterly form indexes)
- SECSmaller reporting companies: public float under $250 million test
- SECEDGAR application programming interfaces, including XBRL frames
- SECEDGAR full-text search FAQ (filings since 2001, including exhibits)
- SECAccessing EDGAR data (fair access policy)
- FASBASU 2023-08, Intangibles: Goodwill and Other, Crypto Assets (Subtopic 350-60)
- Companies HouseFree Accounts Data Product: previous year's monthly files (each monthly file kept for 12 months)
- SECEDGAR full index (quarterly form.idx files)
- SECEDGAR full text search
- SECSmaller reporting company definition (2018 amendments)
- The National ArchivesOpen Government Licence v3.0
- GOV.UKCompanies House data products, including "Using Companies House data"
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