A conservative group of McDonald’s shareholders has urged the fast food giant to adopt Bitcoin as part of its corporate financial strategy, but the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the company could reject the proposal without facing any impact.
The initiative was led by the National Center for Public Policy Studies, a conservative think tank that also owns McDonald’s shares. In a formal letter to the company, the group argued that Bitcoin offers superior liquidity and growth potential compared to traditional assets such as cash, bonds and even real estate.
“McDonald’s is widely viewed, including a real estate company selling burgers by former CFO and Chairman Harry Sanneborn,” the group added, “while real estate has been a more reliable and valuable storage than cash and bonds, it’s not as much appreciated over time as it is not as liquid as Bitcoin.”
The proposal compared MacDonald’s potential Bitcoin investment to move to companies by companies such as MicroStrategy, run by Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor and heavily invested in BTC. More recently, GameStop announced plans to invest $1.5 billion in Bitcoin. However, not all companies are on board. Microsoft shareholders rejected a similar proposal last December.
Following this submission, McDonald’s legal team contacted the SEC to confirm that the Bitcoin proposal could be exempt from being discussed at the annual shareholders meeting in May. The SEC agreed in a letter.
“There appears to be some basis for your view that the company may have been able to rule out the proposal,” the SEC said. “In our view, this proposal relates to the company’s normal business activities. Therefore, we do not recommend the committee to impose sanctions if we remove the proposal from the voting document.”
The SEC response clears the way McDonald puts the Bitcoin debate aside. For now, at least for now, companies are wary of diving into a volatile world of cryptocurrency despite pressure from some investors.
*This is not investment advice.
