Another Publicly Traded Firm Just Adopted a Bitcoin Reserve Strategy

Matador Applied sciences, a Canadian crypto agency, mentioned Monday that it might start leveraging Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset, beginning with a $4.5 million buy later this month.

The little-known firm has been growing a platform on prime of Bitcoin’s community, which is able to allow customers to sooner or later buy and commerce digital representations of gold, in response to a press release. The corporate beforehand said it’s focusing on a launch of “early 2025” for mentioned platform. 

The corporate, previously generally known as Scaling Capital 1, started buying and selling on the TSX Enterprise Change final week beneath its new title. Since Matador’s debut final Tuesday, its inventory value has fallen 35% from a closing value of $0.90 to $0.58, as of this writing.

Since software program agency MicroStrategy began buying Bitcoin in 2020—finally amassing greater than $41 billion price as of this writing—main tech corporations like Tesla have introduced the asset onto their very own stability sheets.

However with companies like Microsoft declining to take that route lately, many corporations following in MicroStrategy’s footsteps have been comparatively small. With a market capitalization of $49.5 million, Matador undoubtedly matches inside that group.

Ultimately, Matador plans on releasing a cellular utility that lets customers “purchase, promote, and retailer gold 24/7,” in response to a press release. However the firm has mentioned it plans to “construct a major portfolio of merchandise” past the valuable steel, in response to its website.

Matador said Monday that its Bitcoin-buying endeavors had been unanimously accepted by the corporate’s board of administrators. As a part of the transfer, Matador mentioned it might in the meantime shift the vast majority of its money balances to the U.S. greenback, whereas ditching Canada’s official forex. 

The Canadian agency mentioned that it had assessed its platform’s viability on Ethereum and Solana, however Bitcoin was chosen for its safe and secure community on the finish of the day. Matador added that bodily gold reserves backing its digital representations will likely be held on the Royal Canadian Mint, an organization owned solely by the Canadian authorities.

“Matador’s board and administration imagine in utilizing Bitcoin to future-proof our treasury,” Matador President Sunny Ray mentioned in an announcement. “This step additionally helps our mission to discover utilizing Bitcoin as a platform for our gold-based merchandise.”

Amongst companies which have adopted Bitcoin this yr, the Japanese funding agency Metaplanet has constructed up a $164 million stash since its first buy in April, in response to Bitcoin Treasuries. However there’s overlap between Metaplanet and Matador past Bitcoin and beginning with the letter M.

BTC Inc., the mum or dad firm of Bitcoin Journal, is understood for internet hosting a preferred line of Bitcoin conferences, nevertheless it additionally operates UTXO Administration as its funding arm. 

The corporate’s co-founder and managing associate, Tyler Evans, sits on Metaplanet’s board of administrators. In a press launch earlier this month, Matador said that Evans would serve on its board of administrators as properly.

Matador, Evans, and Metaplanet didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Decrypt.

Edited by Andrew Hayward