Eagle-eyed investors love an arbitrage opportunity: spotting and profiting from inefficiencies in how assets are priced. Bitcoin treasuries, this year’s hottest and strangest Wall Street fad, are giving them new opportunities to test their skills.
Inspired by MicroStrategy, now known simply as Strategy, bitcoin treasuries are corporate shells created simply to buy and hold the digital token, a widely available asset anyone can freely purchase. Strategy, and some others, trade at a premium to their bitcoin holdings. But many trade at a discount, in seeming contradiction of the efficient markets theory. In any event, the trend has entered a new phase: consolidation.
On Monday, Strive, the listed bitcoin vehicle backed by right-wing entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, announced an all-stock deal to acquire Semler Scientific, a medical device company turned cryptocurrency pot. Strive, with a market capitalisation of around $2.2bn, trades at more than three times the value of its bitcoin holdings; Semler trades at a modest discount. Ramaswamy is using an overvalued currency to buy an undervalued asset. It all sounds relatively straightforward.