1. IZEA’s balance-sheet cash already exceeds much of its market value.

• IZEA held $44.6 million in cash and short-term investments at year-end 2024—up from $37.4 million the prior year. 

• Yet the entire company is presently (June 5th, 2025) valued at only ≈$49 million ( $2.94 share price × ≈16.6 million shares ). In other words, nearly every operating dollar beyond cash is being valued at close to $0. Allocating a slice of idle liquidity into scarce digital assets is a logical way to unlock latent value.

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2. Management is already crypto-friendly.

• IZEA began accepting Bitcoin and Ethereum payments in 2022 and disclosed that it holds both BTC and ETH—already profiting from their appreciation. 

• That existing familiarity slashes the learning curve and custody hurdles that most non-crypto firms face.

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3. Precedent shows that companies willing to act first can see huge gains.

• MicroStrategy used its cash and new financing to buy about 580,000 Bitcoin. Its share price has risen more than thirty-fold, and the company now sits in the Nasdaq-100. The lesson: a crypto reserve can matter more than the original business.

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• SharpLink Gaming raised 425 million dollars to purchase Ethereum. The stock price quadrupled the next trading day, proving even a small firm can be re-rated quickly by pivoting to digital assets.

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• Semler Scientific made Bitcoin its primary reserve, buying roughly 581 coins and adding more over time. The share price went from a small bump to nearly four times higher within a few months. One activist investor pushed the idea through—showing that shareholder pressure works.

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Macro conditions favor holding Bitcoin and Ethereum over idle dollars.

Since 2021 U.S. inflation has averaged about five percent each year, so cash keeps losing value. Bitcoin broke the one-hundred-thousand-dollar mark in November 2024 and continues upwards. Ethereum’s staking rewards and layer-two growth drive its own long-term climb. Putting only five to ten percent of IZEA’s cash into these assets would still leave well over forty million dollars in conventional liquidity while giving the company exposure to assets that are beating inflation by a wide margin.

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A shareholder petition can move the board.

Under SEC Rule 14a-8 any investor who meets modest ownership rules can file a non-binding proposal asking the board to study a Bitcoin and Ethereum allocation. The SEC has already allowed similar requests onto the ballots at Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta. Because IZEA’s share count is small, even a handful of retail holders acting together can gather enough votes to be noticed—and management will not want to ignore a forward-looking idea that already has public support elsewhere.

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The Bottom Line

IZEA already understands crypto, holds excess cash, and trades at a discount to that cash. Redirecting even a sliver of reserves into BTC and ETH could (1) hedge inflation, (2) attract a fresh cohort of tech-savvy investors, and (3) catalyse the kind of multiple expansion seen at peer companies that embraced digital-asset treasuries. A focused, fact-based petition gives investors the best chance to nudge management toward a high-impact, low-cost strategy that directly aligns with shareholder value creation.