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- Cypherpunk Holdings, directed by legendary poker player Tony G, has dumped its Monero and Ethereum and used the funds to increase its BTC position.
- The company now owns 276.479 BTC, the ninth-largest stash owned by a public company.
A Canadian publicly listed company has gone all in on Bitcoin, liquidating its Monero and Ethereum holdings. Cypherpunk Holdings has now become the ninth-largest publicly traded holder of Bitcoin, just behind Hive Blockchain.
All in on Bitcoin
The Canadian company announced in a press release on November 26 that it had increased its Bitcoin stash. Cypherpunk bought 72.979 BTC, worth $1.26 million, raising its total BTC holdings to 276.479 BTC, worth $4.76 million at press time.
The increase in Cypherpunk’s BTC holdings is a result of the full liquidations of positions in Monero and Ethereum, the company revealed. It had also used some funds it raised in a private placement of $505,000 CAD ($388,300). The private placement ended on August 27, with the firm issuing 10,100,000 units at a price of CAD $0.10.
Cypherpunk Holdings becomes the latest public company to increase its BTC holdings. The Toronto-based company is best known in the cryptocurrency community as the owner of Wasabi wallet. The privacy-focused non-custodial wallet gives users full control of their BTC. It also comes with built-in CoinJoin, integrates Tor browser and gives the users coin-control features.
Cypherpunk has also invested in Samourai wallet, yet another privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet. The wallet prioritizes robust encryption and privacy features. Through a partnership with decentralized communication startup goTenna, Samourai also allows users to trade Bitcoin while offline.
At the helm of Cypherpunk Holdings is Antanas Guoga, a world-famous Lithuanian poker player. Better known as Tony G, he was the founding inductee into the Australian Poker Hall of Fame. He now serves in the Lithuanian national assembly, having previously represented the country at the European Parliament.
Public firms turn to Bitcoin
Cypherpunk is now the ninth-largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder. In what is becoming a fast-rising trend, public firms are buying Bitcoin as a hedge against deflationary fiat currencies. The shift comes at a time when many Wall Street firms have touted Bitcoin to be one of the best assets in the long term. One of the most recent is JP Morgan which claimed that Bitcoin is now competing with gold as the alternative currency of choice for many.
The public company with the biggest Bitcoin stash is Microstrategy. The business intelligence firm invested $425 million in Bitcoin in August and September, leading the way for Wall Street firms. CEO Michael Saylor has been a vocal BTC supporter, hailing Bitcoin as digital gold. The company now owns 38,250 BTC, 0.182% of the total BTC supply. Microstrategy’s shares have benefited from the Bitcoin bet, with analysts expecting the price to triple in the near future.
Other public companies with sizeable BTC holdings include Mike Novogratz’ Galaxy Digital with 16,402 BTC, Jack Dorsey’s Square with 4,709 BTC, Voyager Digital with 1,638 BTC and the controversial Riot Blockchain with 1,175 BTC.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust remains the largest Bitcoin owner with a stash of 527,966 BTC, accounting for 2.51% of the total Bitcoin supply. Owned by the Digital Currency Group, the fund gives investors exposure to Bitcoin in an SEC-regulated setup.