This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.
With easier access to crypto companies proliferating, we now have another bitcoin-focused firm looking to go public…
And with a treasury strategy that’s becoming less fringe.
That would be Anthony Pompliano-led ProCap Financial, via a merger with a SPAC called Columbus Circle Capital Corp. Oh, and the company said Monday it intends to buy up to $1 billion of bitcoin for its balance sheet.
The story is becoming more common. Pompliano was the latest to voice what more are believing: Bitcoin is disrupting the legacy financial system.
ProCap Financial plans to not only acquire BTC, but generate revenue from those holdings.
So deploying “cash flow–oriented structures that balance upside potential with downside protection,” said Constantine Karides, the chair of Reed Smith’s crypto and digital assets group and lead lawyer on this deal. He didn’t get more specific.
“It reflects a broader shift in the marketplace — away from speculative token models and toward capital-markets-tested frameworks that can support long-term sustainability,” Karides told me.
Karides was also the lead lawyer on Trump Media’s $2.5 billion bitcoin treasury deal.
And you might recall, Strive Asset Management moved last month to combine with Asset Entities and form a Nasdaq-listed bitcoin treasury company. The firm then signed a $750 million private investment in public equity with Asset Entities for its “first wave” of BTC buys.
Twenty One Capital — a new entity that was set to combine with Cantor Equity Partners in April — holds 31,500 BTC, according to its website.
Strive board member Ben Werkman had told me he wouldn’t be surprised to see 25-35% of all bitcoin one day held by corporations. Strategy, by itself, owns roughly 3% of the bitcoin in supply.
Werkman, also Swan Bitcoin’s CIO, noted today: “As confidence in the dollar and US Treasurys to preserve balance sheet strength erodes, bitcoin is emerging as the new standard for long-term corporate resilience.”
That is, despite its volatility. BTC, up 58% from a year ago, recently dipped below $100,000 and was down nearly 4% over the past week, as of 1:30 p.m. ET.
Kraken CFO Stephanie Lemmerman said at an April event that she expects about 20% of the roughly 55,000 public companies to hold BTC a couple years from now.
ProCap raised $516.5 million in equity and $235 million in convertible notes. Alongside various institutions, Eric Semler is listed as an investor.
Semler is the chair of Semler Scientific, a medical tech provider that held ~3,800 BTC at the end of Q1. It seeks to hold 10,000 bitcoin by the end of 2025 and looks to 10x that (to 105,000 BTC) by 2027’s end.
ProCap Financial intends to ultimately list on Nasdaq, Karides said. A next step is filing a registration statement with the SEC, and the transaction could close within roughly 100 days from there.
“This deal…won’t be the last of its kind,” the lawyer added.
The point is that getting regulated exposure to bitcoin through a listed vehicle is “a model that is becoming increasingly attractive in today’s evolving capital markets landscape,” Karides said.
It’s been roughly five years since Strategy started accumulating BTC. MSTR’s stock price is up more than 3000% over that span.
And beyond bitcoin treasuries, just look at what happened when investors had the chance for public equity exposure to stablecoins via Circle’s IPO.
CRCL was trading around $264 at 1:30 pm ET — up 10% on the day.
As Dan Tapiero said at Blockworks’ DAS in March, investors like owning companies.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
