GameStop Adds BTC to Its Treasury As Bitcoin Adoption Amongst Businesses Continues to Rise

GameStop is the latest publicly traded company to announce a dedicated Bitcoin treasury strategy, and they’re not wasting any time.

The company raised $1.5 billion to buy BTC.

With that announcement, GameStop joins a growing list of public companies that hold BTC on their balance sheet. A list, that we at Samara Asset Group, are also part of. 

Let’s talk about it!

GameStop Raised $1.5 Billion to Buy Bitcoin 🚀

I wrote about GameStop at the beginning of March. Back then, a shareholder sent an engagement letter to the CEO, Ryan Cohen, and urged him to convert his $5 billion cash position into Bitcoin. 

It seems like this letter was effective! Just a few weeks later, the GameStop board voted on whether to use Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. 

Cohen wasted no time as CEO in convincing people that BTC was the right choice. The entire board voted unanimously on the matter and agreed to develop a strategy to integrate BTC into the treasury. 

Now, usually, this is a big win.

Although GameStop had turmoil in the last few years and became a “retail shareholder company” because of the famous short squeeze a few years ago, no one expected them to move extremely fast ahead. 

Only a few days after GameStop announced its private Convertible Senior Notes offering to use the proceeds to buy BTC, the company managed to raise $1.5 billion.

Here’s the kicker: That’s the exact playbook Michael Saylor has been executing for years, and it seems like their chat in February could have influenced Cohen. 

While GameStop is not a giant tech company like NVIDIA, Microsoft, or Alphabet (Google), it still has a reputation amongst retail investors. 

It’s arguably the first publicly traded company that survived because of social media and day trading apps such as Robinhood.

I’m eager to follow GameStop’s Bitcoin journey and look forward to when it announces its first Bitcoin purchase. 

80+ Public Companies Now Hold Bitcoin on Their Balance Sheets 💪

Speaking of public companies that hold Bitcoin, I also wanted to highlight this brilliant report by River Financial. In it, they examined all the publicly traded companies that use Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset or have recently adopted a Bitcoin strategy. 

If you take a closer look, you’ll find us with Samara Asset Group (holding 540 Bitcoin on our balance sheet) also there. 😎

Amazingly, the number of companies adopting a BTC strategy has increased by 139% since 2023, even though its adoption as a treasury reserve asset remains below 1% of all publicly traded firms. 

The growth seems to be catching on worldwide as well. We also heard of the first Chinese company, HK Asia Holdings, to adapt a Bitcoin strategy. 

Considering that China was one of the first countries with a strong “no-Bitcoin” stance and the heavy influence by the CCP on companies, seeing such an announcement might be a strong signal that things are about to change. 

I’m eager to see more companies utilize Bitcoin for the greater good of their shareholders. 

Samara Asset Group Issued the First Quarterly Report on Our Bitcoin Bond 🔥

It’s been a few months since I last wrote about the Nordic Bond we at Samara issued to buy Bitcoin and deploy capital in new fund investments. 

There is some exciting news again! 

But before we get to that, here's a quick TLDR of what we did. 

We successfully raised €20M (roughly $21M) from the Bitcoin Bond in November 2024. Approx. 81% of the proceeds raised have been deployed into six new fund investments, with the remainder of the proceeds going into cash and Bitcoin. 

The bond is secured by over €150m of Limited Partnership stakes in various funds, equating to a roughly 13% secured LTV, well below the Bond’s covenant tests.

Fast forward to this month: We released the first quarterly report on our Bitcoin bond and how this has paid off for Samara Asset Group shareholders. 

Here are the details (but if you want to take a closer look, you can find all the details on Samara’s Investor Relations page): 

• Our Net Asset Value per share of €2.68 reflects a NAV of approximately €245.2m as of Dec. 31, 2024. 

• Throughout 2024, Samara deployed over €85m into new fund investments, building a portfolio with exposure to over 700 portfolio companies operating in high-growth sectors such as AI, Biotech, and Blockchain, among others. 

• As of the report date, Samara holds approximately 540 Bitcoin, which we leverage as a primary treasury reserve asset.

2024 was a triumphant year for us at Samara as we continued deploying to funds, investing in the most disruptive technologies, and accumulating as much Bitcoin as possible. 

I’m excited to see where we’re going in the future and will definitely keep you posted once we have a new report to share!

Why Bitcoin Is the Better Reserve Asset Than Gold, With Dr. Alex von Frankenberg 👀

I’m always excited when I get to release another episode of my Proof of Words podcast! In it, I interview some of the brightest and most fascinating people in Bitcoin, tech, and finance.

This time around, I spoke to my friend Dr. Alex von Frankenberg. He’s the Managing Director at High Tech Gründerfonds GmbH and has been investing in emerging technology and Bitcoin for a while now. 

In our chat, we discussed the current tariff worries in the U.S., whether or not gold is actually in Fort Knox, whether Bitcoin is really a replacement for gold, and what role Bitcoin will play as a strategic reserve asset in the future. 

Tune in here to watch the full episode! 

Your fellow stacker in sats, 

Patrick Lowry