Jetking Infotrain becomes India’s first public company to hold Bitcoin as treasury reserve

The company allocated over 26% of its market cap in Bitcoin, seeking to boost shares' prices in the long term.

He added:

“We are the first ones to do it, and we are kind of talking to the regulators to see how we can formalize it and make sure everything is within that spectrum.”

Jetking Infotrain became India’s first publicly traded company to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as a reserve asset for its treasury after purchasing 12 BTC on Dec. 9, according to the firm’s CEO Avinash Bharwani.

The company’s Bitcoin reserve is worth roughly $1.2 million, at $97,986.35 per BTC as of press time. According to Google Finance data, Jetking Infotrain’s market cap is nearly $4.5 million, which means the firm’s BTC stash represents over 26% of its size.

In an interview with Bitcoin proponent Max Keiser at the Bitcoin Conference MENA in Abu Dabhi, Bharwani stated that Jetking Infotrain’s treasury would mix equities and BTC to boost the company’s price in the long term.

Building blocks

Prominent crypto lawyer Suril Desai is reportedly leading the Indian company’s discussions with regulators. Desai was also involved with India-based exchange Unocoin and represented the firm when it filed a right-to-information request with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2020, asking if banks could provide accounts to crypto firms.

His efforts culminated in the country’s Supreme Court ordering the central bank to lift a nearly 2-year ban on banks facilitating crypto transactions after the RBI told the court there were no official restrictions on providing such services. Bharwani weighted on the decision:

“I think it was really important because that started putting the building blocks for Bitcoin and blockchain, and they also fought the RBI in terms of getting the whole regulator ban lifted. So, now, people can hold Bitcoin on their balance sheet legally.”