Are These Companies The Next MicroStrategy?
MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA - MAY 19: Michael Saylor speaks on stage during Bitcoin Conference 2023 at ... More Miami Beach Convention Center on May 19, 2023 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo byfor Bitcoin Magazine)
Strategy – formerly MicroStrategy – bought its first bitcoin in August 2020. With the 21,454 BTC purchase (valued at $250 million at the time), the world's first bitcoin treasury strategy company was born, and now Strategy holds 580,250 BTC – 2.9% of Bitcoin's circulating supply valued at $60.8 billion.
Strategy issues convertible notes – a form of debt that creditors can redeem for stock in lieu of cash repayment – and equity to fund the purchases.
Since adopting its bitcoin treasury strategy, Strategy's stock is up over 2,800%, and the company's market capitalization is $101.9 billion.
Strategy (formerly Microstrategy) has seen its stock price explode since adopting a bitcoin treasury ... More strategy
Nearly five years after Strategy's first purchase, companies are dogpiling on the bitcoin treasury strategy play.
For instance, GameStop – the video game retail giant of 2021 memestock fame – purchased 4,710 BTC worth $493.6 million this week. GameStop, which had $4.76 billion in cash at the end of 2024, first teased its bitcoin treasury strategy in March.
'If the thesis is correct, bitcoin and gold as well can be a hedge against global currency devaluation and systemic risk,' GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen said in a pre-recorded address to the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
Even President Trump is (unsurprisingly) getting in on the action. The President's publicly traded media company, Trump Media, announced this week that it raised $2.44 billion via equity and convertible notes, of which it plans to allocate $2.32 billion to create a bitcoin treasury.
A slew of public and private companies around the world are hoping to conjure the same magic first cast by Strategy's CEO, Michael Saylor.
Bitcoin treasury strategy tracking website Bitcoin Treasuries lists 147 companies (116 public, 31 private) which hold bitcoin on their balance sheets. Collectively, these companies hold 1,094,425 BTC worth $114.6 billion.
Christian Lopez, the head of blockchain and digital assets at investment bank Cohen and Company Capital Markets, believes this is just the start.
'Bitcoin exposure isn't a trend – it's becoming an asset class and we're still early in that institutional shift,' he told me.
Lopez expects companies to increasingly adopt bitcoin treasury strategies in response to monetary debasement from debt-burdened governments. Individuals and companies will need assets that can outrun money printing and inflation, and bitcoin is the fastest horse in the race, he espoused.
Cohen and Company advised a recent financing round for Nakamoto Holdings, a bitcoin treasury company that is mergering with healthcare company KindlyMD for a spot on public markets.
Nakamoto Holdings raised $710 million – the largest raise ever for a private crypto company – with a $510 million private equity sale and $200 million in convertible notes. David Bailey, the co-founder and CEO of Bitcoin Conference organizer and Bitcoin Magazine publisher BTC Inc., founded Nakamoto and has taken helm of the company as CEO.
'Traditional finance and Bitcoin-native markets are converging. The securitization of Bitcoin will redraw the world's economic map. We believe a future is coming where every balance sheet – public or private – holds Bitcoin. Nakamoto seeks to be the first publicly traded conglomerate designed to accelerate that,' Bailey said.
Nakamoto will use some of its raised capital to buy bitcoin. KindlyMD shareholders approved the merger last week, which is expected to close this year. The company purchased 21 bitcoin for $2.3 million this week, a symbolic nod to bitcoin's 21 million supply cap.
Nakamoto Holdings isn't the only bitcoin treasury strategy company that BTC Inc's team has its hand in.
The company was also involved in Metaplanet's pivot to a bitcoin treasury strategy. The Japanese hotel firm started buying bitcoin in April 2024 with Dylan Leclair (a partner at BTC Inc.'s investment arm, UTXO Management) leading its bitcoin strategy. Metaplanet holds 7,800 BTC worth $817 million and is up 221% year-to-date.
UTXO Management also purchased HK Asia Holdings in January of this year to replicate the bitcoin treasury strategy, and it has acquired 28.88 BTC worth $3 million. Most recently, BTC Inc. and UTXO Management co-founder, Tyler Evans, joined The Smarter Web Company to facilitate its bitcoin treasury strategy. The Smarter Web Company IPOed on the Aquis exchange in the U.K. in late April and currently holds 58.71 BTC worth $6.15 million.
UTXO Management's investments in bitcoin treasury companies earned it a place as the fifth best performing single manager hedge fund in 2024. So it's no surprise that the firm and its parent company want to emulate the strategy wherever possible.
Evans told me in April the company's game plan is to export the bitcoin treasury playbook around the world to unlock investors who may be restricted from – or can not easily access – a U.S. company like Strategy.
'We think that there's an opportunity for a bitcoin treasury company in every tier-one financial market globally,' Evans said.
'Over the last 12 months, we went very hard into the bitcoin treasury-play thesis as as we really saw it play out with what Saylor is doing, and the opportunity to really globalize it," he continued.
Lopez called the global strategy smart, saying that it opens the doors for bitcoin exposure to investors in counties that don't have spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
'It's an intelligent capital deployment and arbitrage strategy. Institutional and retail investors in many countries lack access to clean, direct bitcoin plays. Local public companies with BTC treasuries provide a regulatory-compliant, listed alternative – especially in jurisdictions without bitcoin spot ETFs (e.g., Japan, parts of Europe, Asia, LatAm, etc.),' he told me.
The list of bitcoin treasury strategy companies continues to grow.
Another such company that made headlines recently, Twenty One is going public via a Cantor Fitzgerald-sponsored SPAC and includes Tether and SoftBank as investors. Twenty One says that it holds 31,500 BTC worth $3.3 billion in anticipation of its launch.
Strive Asset Management, a bitcoin treasury strategy company founded by former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy which is merging with Asset Entities, is raising $750 million in a private equity placement to buy bitcoin. The raise includes an option to raise an additional $750 million with warrants for a total consideration of $1.5 billion.
Most of the companies I've covered here have teams that come from other Bitcoin companies, but the fever isn't contained to Bitcoin-first firms.
Med-tech company Semler Scientific, mining company Critical Metals, and many other companies outside of the Bitcoin industry are adopting bitcoin treasury strategies.
As companies continue to crowd into bitcoin, Lopez believes that there is still opportunity to capitalize on the bitcoin treasury strategy trade.
That said, Lopez also believes that a bitcoin strategy alone won't be enough for most of these entrants. He thinks that there will only be a handful of winners who adopt a bitcoin treasury strategy without a strong underlying business. And we'll see a real shift in the bitcoin treasury landscape once companies with strong businesses – the Magnificent Sevens of the world and their ilk – start accumulating bitcoin for their balance sheets, he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
15 minutes ago
- Forbes
‘Sinners' Won't Get A Sequel And That's Exactly Why It Works
Despite speculation and wishes from fans of Ryan Coogler's recent project, Sinners, the Oakland filmmaker, confirmed that this film wasn't going to have any sequels or spinoffs. While some may find this decision surprising, especially after the film's historic box office run, which grossed $341 million, many saw this decision as a welcome change in an industry that champions cinematic universes, reboots, and spin-offs. Coogler understands that, sometimes, the creative process on its own is enough, and, with much of his career involving him breathing life into several different serialized franchises, his decision comes across as bold and earned. 'I've been in a space of making franchise films for a bit, so I wanted to get away from that,' Coogler told Ebony. 'I wanted the movie to feel like a full meal: your appetizers, starters, entrees and desserts, I wanted all of it there.' Now, especially with a rep from Warner Bros. Discovery recently dismissing claims that a sequel was in the works, Coogler's vision for an original standalone film serves as a stark contrast to the state of the diminishing returns found in other Hollywood franchises and films. Sinners, some might argue, achieved its success because it was something new and because that fresh unfamiliarity gave viewers something that they couldn't expect or easily predict. Franchise Burnout Everywhere, you can see fans of different films, TV shows, etc., experiencing burnout for sequels and franchises that, at one point in time, started as original ideas that inevitably became serialized because of their overwhelming initial success. There's been a shift in how people are consuming the films they watch, where previously reliable IPs were guaranteed to be a success, some have begun underperforming in reviews and at the box office, or even lost their goodwill amongst critics and fans alike. For example: The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is currently in its fifth phase. While it's one of the most discussed IPs on the planet and has shown its success through films like Avengers: Endgame (2019) where it earned its #2 spot on the highest-grossing films of all time, bringing in $2.79 billion and a certified fresh at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, since then, many fans feel like the introduction of TV shows on Disney+ in addition to the films of their fourth and fifth phase has made keeping up with the story feel like homework instead of entertainment, coining the term 'superhero fatigue.' By 2023, The Marvels had earned the MCU its lowest box office amount and Rotten Tomatoes score, at $210 million and 62% respectively, a stark decline. Star Wars, one of the most popular and iconic franchises in our cultural zeitgeist, has also suffered from fatigue. The Rise of Skywalker (2019) earned half of what The Force Awakens made, earning $1.077 billion and a certified rotten score of 51% in comparison to $2 billion and a certified fresh score of 93%. Since then, Disney has elected to focus on creating new Star Wars content through shows on Disney+, with several of their shows finding success and some, like The Acolyte, being cancelled after one season. Harry Potter, while the franchise is still going strong with a reboot currently in the works, its spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them earned $814 million and a certified fresh score of 74%. Still, the film, which was originally standalone, turned into a trilogy and by its end Fantastic Beast: The Secrets of Dumbledore earned nearly half of the first films' profits at $405 million and even getting a rotten score of 46%, something previously unprecedented for a franchise that help build and inspire the imaginations of an entire generation. The Fast & Furious franchise, probably the most well-known for its sequels on this list of examples, is still profitable, with its latest installment, Fast X, earning $710 million in 2023. Still, critics and fans alike wonder where else the franchise can go, since the cast has literally taken their cars into outer space at his point in the series. Some critics have even described the IP as 'running on high octane fumes.' The Beauty In Telling A Complete Story Having the restraint to end something, the strength to say 'enough,' when that something has the potential to become an IP with sequels that bring in large amount of cash, but also the potential for those sequels to become stretched thin or 'trapped' following a specific formula to guarantee success, is proof that Coogler not only respects his characters and the story he wanted to and did tell, but also serves as proof that he respects his audience. I've seen Sinners six times. I fell in love with the characters, with the music, with the cinematography. I even ran to see it in IMAX 70mm to get the full experience, even though I had already seen it five times before that. I completely understand the desire for more that a story like this invokes, but I also understand the beauty and strength in telling a finished story. We're so used to watching films and shows that we know we will get a sequel or inevitably be renewed, but for Sinners, a film that's so complete in what it wants to share with it's audience, we can understand that a story doesn't need speculation or expansion. Sinners stands out by telling us that a singular story with a clear beginning, middle, and end is enough to leave us content and satisfied, viewer and director alike.
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Guillermo Del Toro's ‘Frankenstein' Debuts First Teaser At Netflix Tudum
Netflix on Saturday unveiled the first teaser trailer for Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro's long-in-the works adaptation of the 1818 literary classic from Mary Shelley, which is slated for release this November. In the upcoming film, Oscar Isaac stars as Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature (Jacob Elordi) to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation. More from Deadline Netflix Unveils Premiere Date For Crime Thriller 'The RIP' Starring Matt Damon And Ben Affleck 'One Piece' Finds Its Tony Tony Chopper In Mikaela Hoover; Netflix Confirms Season 2 Will Air In 2026 'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery' Sets Premiere Date For Return Of Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc Known for his imaginative creature features, Del Toro has been working on his Frankenstein passion project for over a decade. At Tudum, he called it 'the culmination of a journey that has occupied most of my life,' adding, 'Monsters have become my personal belief system. There are strands of Frankenstein through my films.' Del Toro also touched on the importance of Shelley's work to his career in 2018, while accepting the BAFTA Award for Best Director for The Shape of Water, starring Sally Hawkins. 'The most important figure from English legacy is, incredibly, for me, a teenager by the name of Mary Shelley, and she has remained a figure as important in my life as if she were family,' he said. 'And so many times when I want to give up, when I think about giving up, when people tell me that dreaming of the movies and the stories I dream are impossible, I think of her.' Coming off his third Oscar win for Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, another literary adaptation for Netflix, Del Toro's Frankenstein also stars Mia Goth (X), Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front), Lars Mikkelsen (The Witcher), David Bradley (Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio), Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth), Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) and Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds). Del Toro directed from his own script and produced alongside longtime collaborator J. Miles Dale and Scott Stuber. Netflix debuted the teaser for Frankenstein during Netflix Tudum 2025: The Live Event, a preview of its upcoming slate streamed live from the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. Other films teased today included Happy Gilmore 2, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, and The RIP. Check out Del Toro's latest above. [youtube Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds 'Poker Face' Season 2 Guest Stars: From Katie Holmes To Simon Hellberg 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More
Forbes
23 minutes ago
- Forbes
Proposed Section 899 Of Big Beautiful Bill Challenges Global Investors
T WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 22: U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks to the media after the ... More House narrowly passed a bill forwarding President Donald Trump's agenda at the U.S. Capitol on May 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. The tax and spending legislation, in what has been called the "One, Big, Beautiful Bill" Act, redirects money to the military and border security and includes cuts to Medicaid, education and other domestic programs. Johnson was flanked by House Committee Chairmen who helped craft the legislation. (Photo by) he United States has been a major destination for foreign direct investment for years. In 2022, foreign firms invested over $177 billion in the country. In May 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Tax Act (OBB). Beyond the potential impact on foreign direct investment in the U.S. overall, certain provision of the OBB may have a broader impact, especially affecting common asset protection and wealth planning strategies. The increased rate on withholding, investments, corporate holdings, and more, is designed as a retaliatory measure on taxes, especially digital taxes, imposed by other countries which the U.S. describes as discriminatory foreign countries. The broader application of Section 899 would create additional reporting obligations, complicate foreign asset protection trust holdings, and subject investors to penalties and taxes that were previously unexpected. Foreign individuals or entities that own at least 25% of a U.S. corporation or foreign corporations engaged in a trade or business in the U.S. are subject to reporting requirements under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 6038A. The IRS requires filing Form 5472 to disclose transactions between the implicated corporations and its holders accordingly. Failure to file Form 5472 accurately and timely can result in significant and repeated penalties of $25,000 in each instance and more. Corporations may be subject to the filing requirement regardless of its level of activity. Oftentimes, U.S. investments, whether in real estate, private equity, intellectual property, or otherwise, are held in U.S. Corporations and foreign asset protection vehicles are used in conjunction with such entities to further tax-efficiency, privacy, and creditor protection. These layered wealth protection structures may face additional tax burdens if proposed Section 899 becomes final. Foreign asset protection trusts (FAPTs) often hold U.S. entities with U.S. investments. This structure presents additional challenges with compliance and reporting. Unless structured otherwise, the transfer of assets by a U.S. person to a foreign trust is treated as a grantor trust where the U.S. person is taxed on the trust's income. Distributions by the foreign trust, especially to U.S. beneficiaries subjects the beneficiaries to tax also and additional foreign trust reporting requirements, including filing Forms 3520 and 3520-A. Substantial penalties of $10,000 or 35% of the gross value of any property transferred to the foreign trust, and more may apply for noncompliance. Wealth planning incorporating ownership and transfer of business interests to multinational beneficiaries, and investors abroad or considered foreigners even if located in the U.S. may be impacted by the legislation. The underlying investment in U.S. companies or assets where potential beneficiaries or other investors may be foreign and from the list of discriminatory countries would be subject to the additional tax rates that range from 5% to 20%. Restructuring investments and ownerships to mitigate any potential tax exposure in light of proposed Section 899 would be prudent. Additionally, in conjunction with enforcing the increased rates and compliance obligations under proposed Section 899, increased enforcement of penalties for noncompliance on foreign trust reporting and foreign corporate holdings can be expected if Section 899 is passed and impacted taxpayers would be prudent in ensuring that all prior reporting obligations have been met. For foreign investors and global families with U.S. investments and connections, ensuring comprehensive review of their existing investment and asset protection structures along with ensuring full compliance with U.S. tax reporting requirements is critical. Proactively filing any required returns that may have been inadvertently delayed or omitted will start applicable statutes of limitations on audits and provide potential relief from some penalties where a reasonable cause of noncompliance failure exists. Additionally, preparing for potential legislative changes, including the implementation of proposed Section 899 by restructuring investments, ownerships, and transfers, can prevent additional tax exposure before it is too late.
