New Strategy competitors American Bitcoin and Nakamoto Holdings each announce mergers

The field to become the next Strategy is starting to get crowded. Eric Trump-backed American Bitcoin (a subsidiary of Hut 8) has announced it’s merging with Gryphon Digital Mining and will trade under the ticker “ABTC.”

“Our vision for American Bitcoin is to create the most investable bitcoin accumulation platform in the market,” Eric Trump, cofounder and chief strategy officer of American Bitcoin, said in a press release.  

The anticipated closing target is “as early as Q3,” according to the release.

Also this morning, healthcare company KindlyMD announced a merger with bitcoin investment company Nakamoto Holdings, the new bitcoin-native venture launched by Trump crypto adviser David Bailey.  

Shares of KindlyMD skyrocketed more than 600% in premarket trading upon the announcement and are still trading up over 275% as of 11:45 a.m. ET. 

Nakamoto CEO and founder David Bailey told Sherwood News that the securitization of bitcoin, through entities like Nakamoto, is “the defining financial shift of our era.”

“Nakamoto aims to elevate bitcoin to every public and private corporate balance sheet around the world. We’re at the center of the global public markets seeking to provide investor-friendly structures they can own to accelerate bitcoin adoption,” Bailey said. 

The new company raised $510 million via a PIPE deal and $200 million in convertible notes, “marking [the] largest capital raise to launch a Bitcoin Treasury and the largest PIPE for any public crypto-related transaction,” the press release said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if other companies similar to KindlyMD start exploring the use of crypto and even others in different industries such as healthcare, gaming, and the like,” Alan Orwick, cofounder of Quai Network, said.

Last month, Jack Mallers, the CEO of Strike, Tether, and SoftBank Group launched a new bitcoin-native company, Twenty One, via a merger with Cantor Equity Partners. The investor presentation says the company intends to offer a “potentially superior vehicle for investors seeking capital-efficient bitcoin exposure” than Strategy’s.

As for Michael Saylor’s Strategy, it’s not slowing down and bought 13,390 bitcoin for $1.34 billion this morning. It now holds 568,840 bitcoin. Japanese Metaplanet also acquired 1,241 bitcoin for $126.7 million yesterday, now holding 6,796 bitcoin.

This all comes against the backdrop of the newly announced US-China tariff deal, which boosted bitcoin’s price this morning and some predict will lead to a new all-time high.

“Risk assets are back to a state of euphoria on the news that the US and China have reached an agreement. Bitcoin, which had been acting a lot like gold over the last few weeks, has now swiftly decoupled from that safe haven narrative and is moving in tandem with risk assets again. I wouldn’t be surprised if BTC surpasses its previous all-time high of $109,588 in the coming days,” Nic Puckrin, founder of Coin Bureau, said.