According to a report by CoinDesk, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) of the United States released a guideline update on Wednesday (13th), allowing companies to recognize the “fair value” changes of their held cryptocurrencies. FASB is the organization that provides detailed instructions on how companies should report assets on their balance sheets. This latest measure will benefit companies with cryptocurrencies on their balance sheets, such as MicroStrategy. Under the current regulations, if the value of the held cryptocurrency is lower than the purchase price, companies must report a loss even if they haven’t sold the asset. According to the new rules, companies must report the fair value, cost basis, and type of the held assets. The updated document stated that stakeholders who provided feedback to FASB indicated that the current guidelines do not provide useful information for investors or other parties. The document mentioned that the new rules have gained unanimous approval from the board and will take effect after December 15, 2024. Michael Saylor, the founder of MicroStrategy, previously stated on the X platform that this move will make it easier for companies to adopt Bitcoin as a financial asset, and he reiterated this argument after the release of the FASB guidelines on Wednesday. David Marcus, former head of Facebook’s cryptocurrency and digital financial services and founder of the Bitcoin Lightning Network development company Lightspark, commented that this move is actually a significant progress, eliminating a major obstacle for companies holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets, and 2024 will be a milestone year for Bitcoin.
