Abstract

Corporate Bitcoin adoption has surged from 74 public companies in 2024 to 141 by mid-2025, raising urgent questions about its impact on firm valuation. Previous research has largely focused on short-term reactions, often driven by sentiment and speculative enthusiasm, while global evidence on both short- and long-term effects, and the role of market context, remains limited. This thesis addresses this gap using a global event-study methodology, matching Bitcoin-adopting firms with comparable non-adopters via propensity score matching on key financial and contextual metrics. Abnormal returns are measured using cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) over ±1 trading day and buy-and-hold abnormal returns (BHAR) over 120 trading days, benchmarked against Fama–French three-factor adjustments. Interaction terms capture the influence of cryptocurrency market conditions, major institutional milestones, and the size of holdings. Results show that adoption in isolation does not produce statistically significant abnormal returns in either horizon. However, announcements within six months of the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF approval generate stronger and more persistent positive effects on both CAR and BHAR. When Bitcoin prices have risen in the three months prior, short-term CARs are marginally higher, but these gains reverse over the subsequent 120 days. The relative size of holdings does not show a robust link once fixed effects are included. These findings highlight the importance of timing and market conditions in shaping investor reactions and suggest that corporate Bitcoin adoption alone offers limited sustained valuation benefits.