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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corporate reserves

Galaxy exec: Companies holding crypto is only Phase One

David Canellis

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



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Who’s selling bitcoin?



It’s a question that’s popping up routinely. The wonder is somewhat justified: Strategy alone is buying up billions in bitcoin every other week — so there must be an equivalent force dumping coins at the same time.



For more context, public stocks like Strategy, Metaplanet, Semler, Coinbase and two dozen others have scooped up about 251,700 BTC since the start of the year, a sum currently valued at $26.51 billion. 



That’s more than 3x the number of fresh coins that were mined in the same period. And that’s not counting the 20,800 BTC ($2.2 billion) collected by private companies like Tether and countries such as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bhutan-btc-mining-operations">Bhutan</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/president-nayib-bukele-bitcoin-maxi">El Salvador</a>.



ETFs from around the world have bought an additional 149,100 BTC ($15.7 billion) on behalf of shareholders — predominantly BlackRock’s IBIT, which is holding 130,850 ($13.8 billion) more coins than it was on Jan. 1.



All told, going by the latest available disclosures, more than 400,800 BTC has been stashed away by governments, private and public companies and ETFs this year — equal to 2% of the circulating supply.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdSvl7nW-M8nOa1YV3DfaU0xAxY9CVeZjqEd9725lGkPL3iQiKCvxAQG70iSJ4zokUjaIJGRCYlOwxhbo2xjBAoCkBCS02Dqr_WwShJwxRJMSDPsP8YPpIU7SXzVQF3D9osYIWpjA?key=H_vVFm07tgzAgZ5vSoF73w" alt="" style="width:619px;height:auto"/></figure>



But that’s only counting companies that have increased their holdings.&nbsp;



As for who is actively selling, on the surface level, there doesn’t appear to be one major cohort that’s the culprit.



Still, miners have been slowly offloading their stock. CryptoQuant <a href="https://cryptoquant.com/asset/btc/chart/miner-flows/miner-reserve">data</a> shows miner balances overall are down about 2,000 BTC since the start of the year while retaining an eye-watering 1.8 million BTC ($191.4 billion, over 9% of the circulating supply). The US dollar value of collective miner holdings is, however, at an all-time high.



Otherwise, more than half of all ETFs have been selling the pico top. Fidelity’s FBTC has shed over 6,500 BTC this year while Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust has sold more than 20,000 BTC, with its mini-trust making up only a fraction of the difference. Many other funds have released thousands of coins in the first six months of this year.



It may not be a perfect counterbalance to Strategy, the Saylor clones, and the ETFs that are buying, but it’s clearly adding up.



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Bitcoin

If companies, countries and ETFs are buying bitcoin — who’s selling?

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>
</div></figure>



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

Roughly a third of all bitcoin could one day be owned by corporations, Swan Bitcoin Chief Investment Officer Ben Werkman projects.



President Donald Trump’s strategic bitcoin reserve <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/establishment-of-the-strategic-bitcoin-reserve-and-united-states-digital-asset-stockpile/">order</a> helped clear the path for companies, meaning <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/matt-hougan-crypto-reputational-risk">the risk-reward for adopting bitcoin</a> “has never been better,” he said.&nbsp;



“I won’t be surprised to see 25-35% of bitcoin held by corporations, but keep in mind it seems we’re also going to have some involvement from sovereign wealth funds and central banks,” Werkman told Blockworks in an interview. “I think the pockets of demand are going to get really wide.”



Werkman is a board member of Strive Asset Management, an investment firm that <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/strive-asset-management-to-combine-with-asset-entities-nasdaq-asst-to-form-first-publicly-traded-asset-management-bitcoin-treasury-company-302448623.html">announced</a> earlier this month that it plans to combine with Asset Entities and form a NASDAQ-listed bitcoin treasury company.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, Strive signed a $750 million private investment in public equity with Asset Entities on Tuesday — the proceeds of which would “support the company&#8217;s first wave of Bitcoin acquisitions.” The companies also seek to acquire public companies trading below net cash to then buy bitcoin at a discount.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/corporate-bitcoin-adoption-boom-inevitable-kraken">Why execs say a corporate bitcoin adoption boom is inevitable</a>



Not all companies will become what Werkman called “leveraged bitcoin equities” — the ones that utilize the capital markets to actively accumulate it (like Michael Saylor’s Strategy).&nbsp;



Some could simply choose to make a policy change to allow what they’re holding in US dollars — perhaps 3-5% of corporate reserves — to go toward bitcoin instead, he explained.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



A former equity analyst for firms like Strategy, Metaplanet and Semler Scientific, Werkman has also done consulting for public and private companies exploring how to structure BTC treasury strategies.&nbsp;



“I’ve not yet seen a company that’s been evaluating this where they haven’t been open to starting to have these conversations,” he said. “That tells me they’re realizing they’ve got a problem, and all the uncertainty that’s happened over the last six months has really amplified that for them.”



Keep reading for more excerpts from Blockworks’ interview with Werkman.



Blockworks: What were the main contributors to bitcoin hitting a new all-time high last week?



Werkman: Obviously, on the corporate adoption side, you’re seeing a huge amount of capital start to enter the space. The type of foundational buying pressure from long-only participants — people that aren’t sellers — is really growing, so that’s building a foundational bid underneath bitcoin.&nbsp;&nbsp;



But broader than that, I think you’re seeing a lot of weakness in some of the macro markets. Particularly in Japan, you’re seeing the issues currently rising with the rates over there, and people are starting to get a little scared by that. What we saw when the tariff scare happened was bitcoin essentially made its pivot from a risk-on asset to a risk-off asset. There was tremendous strength that showed up that I don’t think anybody was anticipating.&nbsp;



And people are looking at what’s going to have to come in the US for them to stabilize around rates and the currency, and I think they’re starting to see the path to easing opening back up again.&nbsp;



Blockworks: Kraken CFO Stephanie Lemmerman <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/corporate-bitcoin-adoption-boom-inevitable-kraken">said</a> last month she expects 20% of the roughly 55,000 public companies to hold BTC a couple of years from now. Do you agree? Werkman: I think you’re definitely going to see thousands. Bitcoin got significantly derisked as an asset class when the United States announced a strategic reserve.&nbsp;



When you think about the time and energy you’re putting into building savings in US dollars, only to know that it’s devaluing every year on you, you need to look for an alternative…that has a completely inelastic supply to the demand for it.



It’s maintaining your purchasing power for your corporation and you’ve got a duty to your shareholders to make sure you’re evaluating all the options.&nbsp;



What gets us to the 20% is, you’re going to have a much smaller cohort of these leveraged bitcoin equities, but you’re going to have a broad cohort that just hold bitcoin the asset in corporate reserves to protect themselves.



Blockworks: How do you expect corporate bitcoin adoption to evolve? Werkman: We used to all think it would accelerate over the next three to five years and now we’re seeing it accelerate today. It seems like every week there’s an announcement about a new company doing this.



But you’re going to see a lot of differentiation that starts to happen in the market. When you start getting too many companies that are running the same playbook with the same setup…you’re going to start to see some consolidation in the types of investments. Some will be more successful than others. You can really think about it the way that traditional equities are already structured, where you have value companies, growth companies, and hyper-growth companies. You’re going to see segmentation in this market as well.&nbsp;



Strategy is going to be that value company out there; they’ve achieved scale, they’re safe for institutions to invest in and trade in their products. So they’ve achieved escape velocity on that side, and you’re going to see other bitcoin treasuries grow rather rapidly.



Then there’re going to be new strategies being deployed where they’re going to focus on how fast they’re incrementing that bitcoin per share.&nbsp;



Blockworks: Strategy currently owns 580,250 BTC. How much more do you expect them to accumulate, and can anyone catch up? Werkman: Strategy really defined the initial playbook that a lot of these companies can follow. That was a really important role for them to fill, because the one thing that really needed to happen was the markets needed to be proved out for each of these different types of offerings, and you needed to really get a sense of who your buyer was on the other side of these transactions.



It’s going to start getting a lot harder to put up the same [acquisition] numbers, because now you’re starting to see the demand’s coming and the part that gives is the price. So you’re going to have to keep buying it at a higher price, which means you’re going to be getting less bitcoin.&nbsp;



So achieving a reserve stack like Strategy has is going to be very difficult for any other company; they’ve got a significant moat because if a buyer came in and started to try to buy [580,000] bitcoins right now, that market’s going to move.



I think [Strategy] is probably targeting a million BTC, but it’s going to become a lot harder to get there because there are so many people who are buying and not selling.&nbsp;



Blockworks: Have you seen situations where it might not make sense for a company to deploy a bitcoin treasury strategy? Werkman: To deploy the active strategy, yes. But most companies always have an ability or a business case for creating a bitcoin treasury strategy. It could be something as small as creating an insurance policy for yourself. You don’t want to be the last person that decides to make the change; that’s not a good look for your company.



This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.



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