Coinbase is reaffirming its commitment to Bitcoin, returning to its foundational roots with a strategic move that underscores its long-term faith in the leading cryptocurrency.

CEO Brian Armstrong has reported that the U.S.-based crypto trading platform is now spending Bitcoin (BTC) on weekly basis, which is a move that is intended to position itself as one with institutional whales as well as to add more strength to Bitcoin as a long-term investment.

Coinbase Holds 9,270 Bitcoin Worth $995M

Its 9,270 BTC are worth approximately 995 million which makes the company the 10th biggest corporate holder of BTC presently in the world. The move follows the period when Bitcoin is trading at $107,059 at one of its all time highs with 24h trading volume of 45.68 billion and the total market cap of 2.13 trillion dollars. Its price has even dropped by 0.30% over the past 24 hours.

Armstrong has stated that investors should go long on Bitcoin, and he thinks Bitcoin will definitely work as a store of value. This shift represents a reversal to the early ethos of Coinbase as it opened in 2012 as a Bitcoin-only exchange.

Coinbase Resumes Weekly Bitcoin Buys, Signals Institutional Confidence

The company has also grown to include altcoins throughout the years with Ethereum being added in 2016 and many ERC-20 tokens in 2018. This adaptation was a success but it met condemnation in the form of Bitcoin purists who saw this change as deviating the platform that was originally intended.

MicroStrategy Leads as Coinbase Increases Holdings

However, Coinbase seems to be reversing now that it makes BTC weekly purchases. Prominent market players in the crypto sector have praised the ruling. Michael Saylor, Chairman of MicroStrategy, whose company holds over 592,345 BTC valued at about 33 billion, responded with a rocket image on social networks.

Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey was even more categorical, referring to Armstrong as the G.O.A.T. in restating his commitment to Bitcoin on a corporate level. Though the percentage of Bitcoins held by Coinbase is still significantly lower than by MicroStrategy, the new approach points to a gradual long-term persistence to expand its stocks of BTC.

The migration represents an institutional change as well. Increasingly, key actors are seeing Bitcoin not only as a speculative asset, but as a long-lasting protection against inflation and building block of the digital financial system.

Especially in a market where altcoins and blockchain technology tempt and distract, a renewed commitment to Bitcoin by Coinbase would be a loud signal: to institutions, Bitcoin is king.