Finance

KPMG Canada adds Bitcoin and Ether to its balance sheet

Published

3 years ago

February 8, 2022

The Canadian branch of accounting giant, KPMG has made its first allocation of cryptocurrency assets to its corporate treasury. According to New Wire Canada, the accounting firm announced that it has added cryptocurrencies, for the first time, to its treasury..

The announcement reads, “KPMG in Canada has completed an allocation of cryptoassets to its corporate treasury, the firm’s first direct investment in cryptoassets. The allocation includes Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), as well as carbon offsets to maintain a net-zero carbon transaction to deliver on the firm’s stated environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments.”

However, the firm has so far, not disclosed the amount invested in either Bitcoin or Ether at the time of this writing. The cryptocurrencies were purchased through Gemini Trust Company’s execution and custody services.

What you should know
KPMG established a governance committee to oversee and approve the treasury allocation, which included a risk assessment and review of the tax and accounting implications.

KPMG has been involved with Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) as far back as 2020 when the firm unveiled a blockchain-based Climate Accounting Infrastructure Solution, an initiative designed to assist companies in meeting their ESG targets.

This news also comes 2 months after another “Big Four”, PwC Hong Kong, an international subsidiary of the global PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) organization, announced its emergence in the metaverse space with the acquisition of LAND in the popular world The Sandbox.

What they are saying
Benjie Thomas, Canadian Managing Partner, Advisory Services, KPMG stated, “Cryptoassets are a maturing asset class. Investors such as hedge funds and family offices to large insurers and pension funds are increasingly gaining exposure to cryptoassets, and traditional financial services such as banks, financial advisors and brokerages are exploring offering products and services involving cryptoassets. This investment reflects our belief that institutional adoption of cryptoassets and blockchain technology will continue to grow and become a regular part of the asset mix.”

Kareem Sadek, Advisory Partner, Cryptoassets and Blockchain Services co-leader, KPMG stated, “The cryptoasset industry continuesto grow and mature and it needs to be considered by financial services and institutional investors. We’ve invested in a strong cryptoassets practice and we will continue to enhance and build on our capabilities across Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the Metaverse, to name a few. We expect to see a lot of growth in these areas in the years to come.”.

Bottomline
With the growing interest of the Big Four in the cryptocurrency space, it is safe to say that cryptocurrencies are now becoming adopted and accepted as an asset class which many described as a scam many years ago. Asides from the Big Four, according to Bitcoin Treasuries, Forty publicly-listed companies currently hold Bitcoin on their balance sheet.