Crypto
A bronze statue of “Satoshi Nakamoto”
A bronze statue of Satoshi Nakamoto (Attila Kisbenedek/Getty Images)

Bitcoin treasury company Nakamoto finally completes merger with KindlyMD

Bitcoin has had a busy week, breaking a new all-time high.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

It’s been quite the week for bitcoin, which smashed another record and then crossed $124,000 on Thursday. The asset retreated not long after, however, and is trading around $118,000 Friday morning.

It’s also been a great week for Trump adviser David Bailey, whose bitcoin investment company, Nakamoto Holdings, a new bitcoin-native venture, finally merged with healthcare company KindlyMD late Thursday after a multiday delay. Shares were up over 2% in early trading Friday.

The new entity will keep the KindlyMD name, while Nakamoto becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of KindlyMD that “will operate the bitcoin financial services line of business under the Nakamoto brand.”

In a press release, Bailey said, “Our vision is for the world’s capital markets to operate on a bitcoin standard. Today’s merger represents the beginning of that journey for our company. The merger sets the stage for the next chapter of growth, and we look forward to driving value for our shareholders and advancing Bitcoin adoption globally.”

KindlyMD holds 21 bitcoin, but the merged entity said it would use the $540 million of gross proceeds from the private placement in public equity to acquire more bitcoin. Wasting no time, Nakamoto launched a merch line with some “epic gear,” mimicking Strategy’s move.  

In other bitcoin news:

  • Speaking of Strategy, it has officially and legally changed its name from MicroStrategy. The largest corporate bitcoin holder, with 628,946 bitcoin, rebranded in February.  

  • French semiconductor company Sequans Communications announced “a bold plan to acquire 100K BTC” by 2030. The company launched its bitcoin treasury strategy on July 8 and currently holds 3,171 bitcoin.  

  • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seemed to walk back comments he made about the bitcoin national strategic reserve after saying on Fox News that the US wouldn’t buy bitcoin for the reserve, which would be funded with “confiscated assets.” The comments sparked a lot of discontent, and Bessent later said on X, “Treasury is committed to exploring budget-neutral pathways to acquire more bitcoin to expand the reserve, and to execute on the President’s promise to make the United States the ‘bitcoin superpower of the world.’”

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Payward, parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, puts plans for IPO on hold

Payward, crypto exchange Kraken’s parent company, has paused its plans for an initial public offering until market conditions improve, according to a report from CoinDesk that cited two people with knowledge of the matter. 

Since the firm announced in November its preparation for an IPO of its common stock, the total market capitalization of the crypto industry has shed around $652.2 billion, from $3.2 trillion to $2.5 trillion as of Wednesday, data from CoinGecko shows. 

The news comes two weeks after Kraken received approval for a master account from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, allowing the crypto exchange to connect to the Fed’s payment infrastructure used by traditional banks and credit unions. 

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

Payward, parent of crypto exchange Kraken, has put its IPO plans on hold

Payward, parent of crypto exchange Kraken, has put its IPO plans on hold

The news comes two weeks after Kraken received approval for a master account from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, allowing the crypto exchange to connect to the Fed’s payment infrastructure used by traditional banks and credit unions. 

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

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SEC and CFTC issue new guidance on how securities laws apply to crypto assets

On Tuesday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, together with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, issued an interpretation clarifying how federal securities law applies to crypto assets, a first step toward developing a clearer regulatory framework. 

The interpretive guidance introduces a token taxonomy for different types of cryptocurrencies, with SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins adding that “most crypto assets are not themselves securities.”

Examples of a digital commodity, “a crypto asset that is intrinsically linked to and derives its value from the programmatic operation of a crypto system that is ‘functional,’” include:

The guidance also includes definitions of digital collectibles (such as NFTs), stablecoins, digital tools, and digital securities (such as tokenized real-world assets and stocks).

This is a monumental step in the mainstream adoption of the industry and clears a hurdle in how crypto can operate going forward, according to David Pakman, head of venture investments at CoinFund. “This will allow new token designs with the confidence that their existence does not require registration with the SEC, etc.,” Pakman told Sherwood News.

Despite the clarification efforts from the two organizations, the market capitalization of the crypto industry has dropped about 2% in the last 24 hours as each of the tokens mentioned in the guidance are trading lower in the period, data from CoinGecko shows.

The joint agency action also complements congressional efforts to turn a crypto market structure framework into law. With the goal of providing regulations on the offer and sale of digital commodities, the CLARITY Act passed the House of Representatives last year and is now sitting in the Senate.

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