Reddit Discloses Bitcoin and Ether Holdings in IPO Filing

Reddit said it invested part of its excess cash in bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), making the firm one of the few companies that directly purchased digital assets alongside likes of Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy and Elon Musk’s Tesla.

The social media platform submitted a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “RDDT.”

As part of the filing, the social media platform disclosed that it invested part of its excess cash in bitcoin and ether. It also said that it acquired ether and Polygon (MATIC) “as a form of payment for sales of certain virtual goods.” Reddit said it may continue this strategy in the future.

The firm didn’t disclose how many tokens it holds but said in the filing that the net carrying value of the digital assets was “immaterial.”

“We hold cryptocurrencies and experiment with blockchain technology, which may subject us to exchange risk and additional tax, legal, and regulatory requirements,” the filing stated.

The move comes after a years-long process with regulators to become a publicly traded company. Reddit first filed a non-public draft with the SEC in December 2021.

The San Francisco-based company expects to begin trading in March.

“We are going public to advance our mission and become a stronger company,” co-founder Steve Huffman said in the filing. “Our users have a deep sense of ownership over the communities they create on Reddit. This sense of ownership often extends to all of Reddit. … We want this sense of ownership to be reflected in real ownership—for our users to be our owners. Becoming a public company makes this possible.”

According to the filing, Reddit had $804 million in sales in 2023, a figure much higher than the previous year. The company also has a total of $1.6 billion in assets, including $1.3 billion in cash.

Bitcoin and ether prices saw a slight bump on the news of the holdings before paring their gains. Another Reddit-related token, DONUT – the token that represents the community points of the r/ethtrader subreddit – surged 41%.

UPDATE (Feb. 22, 21:14 UTC): Updates story throughout to add more details of the filing and context.