History was written in the streets of London’s financial district as B HODL became Britain’s first publicly listed Bitcoin treasury firm. The company began trading on the Aquis Stock Exchange on Monday morning, and raised £15.3 million to build a Bitcoin treasury strategy with the final goal of bridging digital assets with conventional equity markets.
Trading commenced under the ticker symbol “HODL”, with the shares rising from the 14-pence subscription price straight away to 17.88 pence. The company raised funds by issuing 109.5 million new shares, which included a retail offering that was oversubscribed and closed early due to high demand.
The company’s fundraising did better than planned. They hoped to get £500,000 from common investors through public funding but ended up with £2 million, so it stopped the offer early. With an extra £13.3 million from big investors, they raised £15.3 million total. This gave it a market value of about £19.6 million, with around 140 million shares when they started trading on the Aquis Stock Exchange.
The success can be partly attributed to the fact that Bitcoin Policy’s UK co-founder and ex-solicitor Freddie New is the company’s chief executive. This places it as Britain’s pioneer in public bitcoin accumulation strategies. The firm also defines itself as having one sole focus: to buy bitcoin and earn revenue from keeping cryptocurrency in its treasury.
Strategic Backing from Industry Veterans
HODL received significant support from respected participants in the cryptocurrency space when UK bitcoin exchange CoinCorner acquired 14.3% of the issued share capital. CoinCorner CEO Danny Scott serves in the dual roles of Chief Bitcoin Officer and board director for HODL, possessing over a decade of experience working in the bitcoin space.
Blockstream CEO Adam Back has become the largest individual shareholder of HODL, having over 25.5% of its outstanding shares. He will also serve as CEO of Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company, which announced a Nasdaq listing via a merger with Cantor Fitzgerald-backed SPAC Cantor Equity Partners.
HODL’s board consists of other high-profile financial industry veterans, such as non-executive chairman David Jaques, a veteran PayPal CFO. The management includes a mixture of traditional finance expertise and vast cryptocurrency market expertise that reflects its capability of bridging mainstream financial markets with digital asset innovation.
HODL plans to fund future bitcoin purchases with the funds raised and derive initial returns on business from lightning network nodes and associated routing fees. Its management anticipates deriving much more revenue from sources other than lightning network operations, though specific diversification plans have not been made public. The firm’s IPO prospectus emphasizes mass bitcoin accumulation as the primary strategic emphasis, with revenue generation as a secondary business model.
