A huge rally in the price of bitcoin is encouraging digital asset companies to tap capital markets for funds to buy cryptocurrencies, taking advantage of buoyant investor demand.
Bitcoin’s 50 per cent jump from its early April lows to an all-time high of $111,965 (€98,780) last week is sparking a rush to list vehicles offering to sell shares and debt while promising to build large crypto reserves.
On Tuesday the media company run by Donald Trump’s family confirmed plans to raise $2.5 billion to buy cryptocurrencies.
The number of listed companies holding bitcoin has jumped from 89 at the start of April to 113, according to BitcoinTreasuries.net, holding just over 800,000 bitcoin worth around $88 billion.
Many firms are trying to emulate the success of software company and bitcoin hoarder Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, which has accumulated 580,000 bitcoin and commands a market value of more than $100bn.
Favourable market conditions, for instance a de-escalation of the US-China trade war and lower market volatility, are supporting issuance, said Aaron Chan, digital asset strategist at Dutch market maker Flow Traders.
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“As long as this persists, we do see [investors] stepping back into the market to try to get into the ground floor of the ‘next Strategy’.”
The moves come as many of the crypto market’s biggest names gather in Las Vegas for an annual bitcoin conference. Last year it attracted a campaigning Mr Trump, who promised to make America “the bitcoin superpower of the world” as president.
Among firms tapping markets is Twenty One Capital, run by Jack Mallers, who was influential in making bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador. The venture was created in a deal with Cantor Equity Partners, headed by Brandon Lutnick, son of US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, and backed by SoftBank and stablecoin operator Tether.
US politician Vivek Ramaswamy’s Strive Asset Management and American Bitcoin, a miner part owned by Trump’s sons Donald Jr and Eric, have announced mergers giving their bitcoin acquisition vehicles access to a stock market listing and with it the opportunity to raise further funds.
Strive on Tuesday said it aimed to raise as much as $1.5 billion to support a “first wave of bitcoin acquisitions”.
Blank cheque company Nakamoto Holdings is merging with opioid healthcare group KindlyMD to set up a corporate bitcoin treasury. David Bailey, chief executive of Nakamoto, whose firm is holding the Las Vegas event, said the firm is “packaging bitcoin into various forms” to attract buyers from other markets.
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Firms are aiming to jump on bitcoin’s surging run, which has been fuelled by the Trump administration’s more favourable stance towards crypto.
For many executives in the crypto sector, Strategy, cofounded by billionaire Michael Saylor, remains the best example of how equity markets are being used to tap demand for bitcoin.
In 2020 he set out to buy bitcoin for his company’s corporate treasury, turning Strategy into a leveraged investment vehicle highly sensitive to bitcoin’s price. Its outsized purchases and growing ambition have been paid for with sales of stock, preferred stock and convertible bonds.
That effort has powered a corporate valuation that has grown faster than bitcoin’s. Strategy’s stock market capitalisation is $101 billion whereas its bitcoin holdings have a market value of around $64 billion, as investors bet the value of the company’s bitcoin holdings will rise faster than the company will dilute its shares.
Executives and investors argue that Strategy’s aggressive bitcoin purchases have helped support bitcoin’s price.
“[The Twenty One initiative], together with other so-called Bitcoin treasury companies, is mechanically increasing demand for bitcoin, which is a catalyst for higher bitcoin prices,” said Christophe Roehri, deputy chief executive of digital asset manager TOBAM, which owns $3.9 million of Strategy shares, according to regulatory filings.
Crypto executives hope waves of equity-fuelled bitcoin purchases will increase the scarcity value of bitcoin, whose supply is capped at 21 million tokens.
Companies involved in these acquisition schemes are already seeing an uplift to their share price.
The so-called pro forma enterprise value – or the value the company will theoretically be worth after the deal is completed – of Cantor Equity Partners is around $14.4 billion, more than three times the value of the 42,000 bitcoin it will hold [via the Twenty One venture].
Shares in Gryphon Mining, American Bitcoin’s acquisition target, have risen around 120 per cent and KindlyMD shares are up 540 per cent since they announced their deals on May 12th. Asset Entities, which is being bought by Strive, is up 1,240 per cent since its deal was announced.
However, analysts warn that replicating Mr Saylor’s success will not be easy.
“Market demand for bitcoin-linked securities will not materialise automatically,” said Patrick Bush, senior investment analyst for digital assets at VanEck. “Michael Saylor’s outsized public profile is no accident and demonstrates implicit recognition that the market needs to believe in the bitcoin treasury strategy to succeed.”
Others doubt the scale of purchasing from newcomers will be enough to support the bitcoin price.
“It’s still very far from Strategy,” said Roehri, adding that Strategy only owns 2.7 per cent of total outstanding bitcoin. “This is small when compared to traditional finance markets like equity.”
But Flow Traders’ Chan said Trump’s erratic tariff policies could damp enthusiasm from investors.
“One significant limiting factor for all these copycats, and Strategy, is the capital market’s capacity to absorb these issues,” he said. “If [equity market volatility] and interest rate uncertainty persists, investors are going to be less receptive to these issues from newcomers.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
