McDonald's legal team sent a request to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to see if the company could ignore the bitcoin offer without repercussions. And it looks like the regulator has backed that position. The story began when the National Center for Public Policy, a McDonald's think tank and shareholder, sent a letter to the famous fast food chain's management urging them to invest in its first cryptocurrency. ”McDonald's is widely regarded - including by former CFO and President Harry Sonneborn - as a real estate company that happens to sell burgers,” said the National Center's proposal. ”Real estate has been a much more reliable store of value than cash and bonds, but it won't grow over time as much as bitcoin and doesn't have as much liquidity. As more companies add bitcoin to their balance sheets, if McDonald's doesn't follow suit, it will fall behind where it once led.” Bitcoin and corporations This isn't the first time shareholders have asked corporations to start acquiring bitcoin. Michael Saylor's technology company Strategy has made bitcoin hoarding a trend thanks to its constant purchase of the digital asset. The rising value of the cryptocurrency has significantly boosted the company's coffers. Recently, video game retailer GameStop said it raised $1.5 billion to buy bitcoin. In contrast, Microsoft shareholders voted against such a move last December. Companies' interest in acquiring bitcoin intensified after Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election last November, which helped push the price of BTC to an all-time high. SEC Takes Sides After receiving a proposal to acquire bitcoin, McDonald's legal representatives sent a letter to the SEC under Paul Atkins' administration seeking confirmation that the regulator would not ”recommend any enforcement action” if the fast-food chain declined to publicly discuss the idea at its upcoming annual shareholder meeting in May. The SEC seemed to agree that McDonald's has the right to refuse to discuss the proposal at the annual meeting. ”There is some basis for your view that the company may exclude the proposal,” the agency responded in a March 28 letter. ”In our view, the proposal relates to the company's ordinary business operations. Accordingly, we will not recommend enforcement action to the commission if the company removes the proposal from its voting materials.”
