Ben Strack

This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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It seems like just about every day we get an update on a company buying bitcoin, ETH or another altcoin — establishing a crypto reserve for the first time, or adding to its pile.&nbsp;



But firms forming and getting these assets on their balance sheet is just phase one, Galaxy asset management head Steve Kurz told me last week.&nbsp;



“To the extent that companies are able to use capital-markets tooling to achieve escape velocity, they’re going to be able to build potential operating businesses and ecosystems around the networks they’re supposed to back,” he said.&nbsp;



Foundations pushing various decentralized systems are generally not exploring the systems’ use cases in the same pointed (and commercial) way, Kurz noted.&nbsp; He added: “So what will be interesting in determining how many are successful is: To what degree do those ecosystems become more vibrant, and where is the synergy between that and the business model of these companies that will have success?”



The original (and behemoth) in this space, Strategy, now holds 607,770 BTC (acquired for ~$43.6 billion) after its latest 6,220 BTC buy. Trump Media said this morning it has accumulated $2 billion of bitcoin and has another $300 million earmarked for an options-acquisition strategy for BTC-related securities.



Also revealed this morning was the creation of The Ether Machine via the combination of The Ether Reserve and Nasdaq-listed Dynamix Corporation. Labeling its aim of “enabling public market investors to access Ethereum yield,” the public vehicle expects to launch with ~400,000 ETH (worth more than $1.5 billion).&nbsp;



We saw Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company say last week it plans to launch with holdings of 30,021 BTC after merging with SPAC Cantor Equity Partners.



And a week before that, ReserveOne said it planned to list on the Nasdaq after combining with (yes, you guessed it) another SPAC — this one called M3-Brigade Acquisition V Corp. The company looks to offer investors access to “a diversified digital asset portfolio inspired by the proposed US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile.”



ReserveOne lists Galaxy Digital as a strategic partner. Galaxy also agreed to help oversee <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-treasury-strategies-sharplink-eth">SharpLink Gaming’s ETH treasury strategy</a>, led by board chair Joseph Lubin.&nbsp;



That brings us back to my convo with Kurz, who noted Galaxy has done business with 15 or so companies who have raised $4 billion to buy crypto. That includes offering execution, custody and risk management services, as well as yield-generation infrastructure.



“The bigger picture is crypto intersecting with public markets in the US [being] the story of 2025,” he said.



By Bitwise’s count, 125 public companies held bitcoin at the end of Q2.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Companies are buying bitcoin, Q2 2025 edition <a href="https://t.co/0UxrlIZQvb">pic.twitter.com/0UxrlIZQvb</a>&mdash; Bitwise (@BitwiseInvest) <a href="https://twitter.com/BitwiseInvest/status/1943029893153067193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Kraken CFO Stephanie Lemmerman predicted in April that we could see <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/corporate-bitcoin-adoption-boom-inevitable-kraken">more than 10,000 </a>public companies holding BTC a few years from now. Swan Bitcoin CIO Ben Werkman told me in May that corporations could one day hold between 25% and 35% <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/companies-building-btc-treasuries-corporate-reserves">of all bitcoin</a>.



Kurz isn’t so sure about those projections but notes the likelihood of many companies owning at least a little bit of BTC (even if not raising a ton to keep accumulating) — given its scarcity, de-dollarization, etc.&nbsp;



A Keyrock <a href="https://keyrock.com/btc-treasuries-uncovered/">report</a> found bitcoin treasury companies were trading at, on aggregate, a 73% premium to their BTC holdings. Not all will trade at a premium forever — particularly those “being the 10th in line to do the same thing,” Kurz explained.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“If there’s 100 right now and 10 of them achieve scale, what does phase two look like for those that achieve the scale?” the Galaxy exec posed. “And are they able to do more in DeFi to generate yield and stay ahead of the ETFs on performance and hire a great team to build out a broader investment program?”



How these companies’ business models evolve over time is unknowable right now. 



“This is capital-markets-meets-crypto-innovation all at once,” Kurz said. “Some of it will be great, and some of it won’t be great.”



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Galaxy exec: Companies holding crypto is only Phase One

This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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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.&nbsp;



ProCap Financial plans to not only acquire BTC, but generate revenue from those holdings.&nbsp;



So deploying “cash flow–oriented structures that balance upside potential with downside protection,” said Constantine Karides, the chair of Reed Smith&#8217;s crypto and digital assets group and lead lawyer on this deal. He didn’t get more specific.&nbsp;



“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 <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/companies-building-btc-treasuries-corporate-reserves#">had told me</a> 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.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Strategy has acquired 245 BTC for ~$26.0 million at ~$105,856 per bitcoin and has achieved BTC Yield of 19.2% YTD 2025. As of 6/22/2025, we hodl 592,345 <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24BTC&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$BTC</a> acquired for ~$41.87 billion at ~$70,681 per bitcoin. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24MSTR&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$MSTR</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24STRK&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$STRK</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24STRF&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$STRF</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24STRD&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$STRD</a> <a href="https://t.co/bnE0OC9kEv">https://t.co/bnE0OC9kEv</a>&mdash; Michael Saylor (@saylor) <a href="https://twitter.com/saylor/status/1937118945057915061?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 23, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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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 <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/corporate-bitcoin-adoption-boom-inevitable-kraken">to hold BTC</a> 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.&nbsp;



“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 <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-shares-nyse-day-one#">via Circle’s IPO</a>.&nbsp;



CRCL was trading around $264 at 1:30 pm ET — up 10% on the day. 



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-ipo-boom-etoro-kraken">As Dan Tapiero said</a> at Blockworks’ DAS in March, investors like owning companies.



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Fringe to frequent: Inside ProCap’s bitcoin strategy, listing hopes

Katherine Ross

This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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Could we get an alt season after all?



Monarq Asset Management’s Shiliang Tang told <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/empire">Empire co-host Jason Yanowitz</a> that there’s a possibility that the popularity of crypto treasury companies sparks an alt season that we haven’t seen before. This one would be focused on tokens deemed “ fundamentally valuable enough for traditional public money and capital” to get involved with.



It’s an interesting take, and one that I haven’t heard before. Especially because there’s a lot of criticism around these vehicles, some of which is warranted due to the entities’ structure.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">In this morning&#39;s spaces that we had I was banging the drum about how I was concerned that these treasury acquisition vehicle companies were fleecing equity holders by being higher up the capital structure and using retail as exit liquidity to dilute and sell into. Here we are. <a href="https://t.co/X0pgBx1FoO">https://t.co/X0pgBx1FoO</a>&mdash; fejau (@fejau_inc) <a href="https://twitter.com/fejau_inc/status/1933274896924356750?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Meanwhile, FalconX’s Josh Lim said that the rise of these treasury companies puts crypto — if we’re recycling what we talked about on Friday — in the “early to mid” innings of crypto’s adoption.&nbsp;



 ”There&#8217;s a pretty healthy pipeline of large deals. Like, we think there&#8217;s only going to be a handful of really credible teams like operators and the bankers [and investors]” that participate in these deals, he said.&nbsp;



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<iframe loading="lazy" title="The State Of Crypto Derivatives" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YzMlgm3o_rM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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He noted that there’s generally a “chosen one” in each category, and those are the winners. Take, for example, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/microstrategy">Strategy</a> or perhaps SharpLink Gaming. Strategy’s pretty much set itself as the gold standard, and SharpLink <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-treasury-strategies-sharplink-eth">could apply</a> the Strategy playbook to ETH.



Lim noted that he thinks there’ll be four or five “big ones” and then “lots of small ones.” His exact estimate was 50 or so.&nbsp;



But while there’s an appetite now, Lim noted that there are still risks.&nbsp;



 ”The downside risks are basically there could be sort of…fatigue for these like public equity deals and crypto — let&#8217;s say flat lines — and all these things trade at a small discount to NAV,” he noted.&nbsp;



If the risks play out, then Lim says that the market needs to stabilize and wait for “more capital to come in.” He added that there’s precedent for it.&nbsp;



But Yanowitz thinks there’s a different risk on the horizon. He believes that these companies need a good financial engineer and a marketer. And for him, a lot of the smaller ones making the pivot don’t have either.



Look, it’s clear that the treasury companies are here to stay. But the battles for the best is still underway.&nbsp;



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