Bitcoin Financial Services Firm Fold Set to Unload $250 Million on BTC Buys

Fold has entered into an agreement to issue and sell $250 million new shares of its stock, with the aim of purchasing more Bitcoin, the company said Tuesday in a statement.  

The publicly traded Bitcoin financial services firm plans to sell shares of its common stock to pre-selected investors and institutions rather than on a public exchange. The Phoenix-based company has not set a timeline for its issuance and sale of the shares. 

Fold shares are trading at $4.57, down nearly 3%, according to YahooFinance data. The stock is down about 60% since the start of the year.

The majority of the sales proceeds, if any, will go toward bolstering Fold’s Bitcoin corporate treasury.  

Fold holds roughly 1,488 Bitcoin worth a little more than $155 million as of writing time. 

Bitcoin was recently trading about $104,500, down nearly 4% over the past 24 hours, according to data provider CoinGecko. It has fallen almost 5% during the last seven days after soaring above $110,000. 

The company’s plans to raise funds in a bid to buy more Bitcoin comes as a growing number of private and public companies add the digital asset to their balance sheets in imitation of Michael Saylor’s Strategy, which pivoted from software development to focus on Bitcoin accumulation. 

A full 236 entities hold Bitcoin as of publication time, up roughly 13% over the past month, according to Bitcointreasuries.net. That number includes 131 public companies—a figure that has grown over the past few months. 

Strategy reported its 10th consecutive Bitcoin buy this week, bringing its total holdings of the token to 592,100 Bitcoin worth more than $64 billion, according to its filings with U.S. federal regulators. 

Although firms are embracing Bitcoin, some analysts are warning against their crypto-focused corporate strategies. A Standard Chartered report shows that roughly half of non-crypto public company owned Bitcoin treasuries “would be underwater” if the token fell below $90,000. 

Edited by James Rubin