Bitcoin infrastructure firm Riot Platforms has plans to sell $500 million in convertible senior notes in a private offering to institutional investors. As part of the deal buyers have an option to buy $75 million more over three days after the initial sale.
According to a Dec. 9 statement, proceeds will be going to expand the company’s Bitcoin holdings and other general corporate activities. Many crypto firms, likewise, are turning to convertible notes, notes that allow owners to swap debt for equity, as a way to shore up Bitcoin reserves.
Marathon Digital Holdings’ strategy to upsized a convertible note sale to $850 million was repeated by Riot, which recently made $150 million more available for an extension. As for Marathon, its Bitcoin reserves have topped $3.3 billion.
Bitcoin Demand Fuels Corporate and Geopolitical Momentum
That’s a trend that points to an increased fascination in Bitcoin among publicly traded firms. Both Japanese investment company Metaplanet and China’s SOS Limited and Genius Group have recently raised $45 million in Bitcoin via share sales.
This institutional BTC accumulation follows suit from prominent BTC advocate Michael Saylor, former CEO of MicroStrategy, who has led the charge for using convertible debt to buy Bitcoin.
And one guy who transformed from crypto skeptic to pro-BTC evangelist sees the asset dominating global reserves in years to come. It goes on to corporations. Recently the National Center for Public Policy Research called on Amazon to add ‘BTC’ to its corporate reserves and consider it as a payment option.
However, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao concurred and stated that if Amazon adopted BTC, it would greatly cement the digital asset’s place among tools of the global economy. Experts believe an emerging geopolitical race for the asset will surge around BTC finite supply and the growing institutional demand.
The notion, meanwhile, has gained legs even as speculation intoned that the incoming U.S. administration under President-elect Donald Trump, who is known to have expressed support for BTC, could push for its creation as a national Bitcoin reserve.
With competition continuing to intensify, Riot’s latest fundraising play is a signal that big players are vying to stake their claim in the digital gold rush at an ever faster pace.
