Latest news with #ProCap
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Anthony Pompliano's ProCap to Go Public in $1B Bitcoin Treasury SPAC Deal
Anthony Pompliano is taking his bitcoin-native financial platform ProCap BTC public through a $1 billion merger with Columbus Circle Capital Corp. I (CCCM), a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) sponsored by an affiliate of Cohen & Company. The transaction, announced Monday, positions the new entity, ProCap Financial, Inc., as one of the largest bitcoin treasuries ever to hit public markets. In what's being called the largest initial fundraise for a public bitcoin BTC treasury company to date, ProCap raised $550 million in preferred equity and secured $225 million in convertible notes, giving future shareholders immediate exposure to bitcoin through a structure designed to acquire BTC ahead of the deal's close. Led by Pompliano, a well-known investor and vocal bitcoin advocate, ProCap aims to operate at the intersection of digital assets and traditional finance. The company plans to generate profit not just by holding BTC but by actively deploying its bitcoin balance sheet across yield-generating strategies that mitigate risk and capitalize on crypto-financial infrastructure. "The legacy financial system is being disrupted by bitcoin," Pompliano said in a statement. "ProCap Financial represents our solution to the increasing demand for bitcoin-native financial services among sophisticated investors." The merger values the combined entity at up to $1 billion, depending on the final bitcoin purchase price at closing. ProCap's BTC assets will be custodied until the transaction completes, giving investors near-instant BTC exposure without waiting for the company to go public. The transaction is expected to close before the end of 2025, pending SEC review and shareholder approval. The Financial Times first reported that Pompliano was set to become the CEO of ProCap BTC, and that the company was planning to raise $750 million to acquire (June 23, 14:40 UTC): Updates photo.
CNBC
17 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
Pompliano's ProCap raises over $750 million, goes public via SPAC as bitcoin treasury bubble grows
The race to create publicly traded bitcoin treasuries is accelerating — and so is the capital pouring in. ProCap Financial, the latest entrant, has raised more than $750 million and is going public through a special acquisition company, or SPAC, with Columbus Circle Capital Corp. I, according to an announcement Monday. Led by investor and podcast host Anthony Pompliano, ProCap raised more than $750 million in its funding round, including $235 million in convertible debt, with equity making up the rest. The new firm aims to hold up to $1 billion in bitcoin on its balance sheet and generate revenue through a full-stack, bitcoin-denominated financial services platform. The rush into bitcoin treasuries — inflated by cheap capital, yield promises, and brand name endorsements — is starting to resemble a bubble. "There's an old George Soros quote that goes, 'When I see a bubble forming, I rush in to buy, adding fuel to the fire,'" Pompliano said. "There's a reason the bubble forms — because the trend works." ProCap joins a growing cohort of bitcoin-heavy ventures using reverse mergers and blank-check vehicles to tap into public markets. From Trump Media's $2.5 billion bitcoin treasury plan to Jack Mallers' Twenty-One and the Nakamoto fund, a growing number of firms are racing to offer stock market exposure to bitcoin. Some, like Tron founder Justin Sun, are using reverse mergers to take crypto businesses public — in Sun's case, folding his blockchain platform into a Nasdaq-listed toy manufacturer. Others, like Mallers, are launching purpose-built bitcoin holding firms backed by heavyweight investors including Tether and SoftBank. While Trump Media isn't a crypto-native firm, it has embraced the playbook of raising money to buy bitcoin and promoting the asset through affiliated ventures. All are following a path blazed by Strategy's Michael Saylor: Turning public companies into bitcoin proxies. But ProCap says it's pushing beyond that model, aiming not just to hold bitcoin but to build a financial services platform on top of it. "Most other firms raised capital that's just sitting in cash while they wait for deals to close," Pompliano told CNBC. "We're buying bitcoin immediately." He added that ProCap's equity investors are getting direct exposure from day one. The structure gives ProCap a rare first-mover edge in a space where many deals are still weeks or months from closing, with some yet to even file their S-4s — the regulatory documents required to complete a merger. It also sets the stage for a new phase of the bitcoin proxy trade: not just holding bitcoin, but generating yield from it. "We want to build the leading bitcoin-native financial services company," Pompliano said. "Like a traditional Wall Street firm, but on top of a bitcoin balance sheet instead of dollars." ProCap plans to offer services like lending, trading, and capital markets — all denominated in bitcoin. The goal is to recreate the architecture of a Goldman Sachs or Cantor Fitzgerald, rebuilt from the ground up in crypto. "The goal is to look and feel like a traditional financial institution," he added. "That resonates very differently with capital allocators." ProCap's pitch to investors is that it's not just chasing momentum. It's building the infrastructure for what Pompliano calls a new financial system — one that runs on bitcoin, but looks and feels familiar to the institutions still sitting on the sidelines. "Many companies don't care about the cost of capital. We do," he added. "We're traditional capital allocators — we care about building a sustainable business that generates cash flow."
