Bitcoin Treasury Company GD Culture May Sell BTC to Buy Back Shares

In brief

• GD Culture earned board approval to sell some of its 7,500 Bitcoin in order to fund a $100 million share buyback plan.
• Shares rose 15% amid the news, but are still down 60% from its 52-week high.
• The firm accumulated the 7,500 BTC as part of an acquisition last fall.

Publicly traded artificial intelligence and livestreaming firm GD Culture approved the sale of some of its 7,500 Bitcoin, or around $518 million worth, as part of its effort to fund a new share repurchase program, the firm announced on Wednesday.  The program, approved earlier this month by the firm’s board of directors, authorizes it to repurchase up to $100 million in GD Culture shares (GDC) intermittently over the next six months.  “The board’s authorization permits the company to execute the Bitcoin sales in one or more transactions, from time to time, as management determines to be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders,” the firm said in a statement.  

“Proceeds from the Bitcoin sales are expected to be used to fund repurchases of the company’s common stocks pursuant to the share repurchase program.”  While the firm is authorized to sell all of its Bitcoin holdings, it is under “no obligation” to sell any specific amount and the program can be modified or discontinued at any time, according to its announcement.  GD Culture picked up the 7,500 BTC last September when it entered into a share agreement to acquire Pallas Capital and its holdings. Now it can start to sell off its treasury if it wishes to, though its total holdings are worth around five times more than the approved amount for share repurchases.  Shares in the firm are up around 21% following the news, recently trading at $4.04 but have still fallen more than 10% in the last month.

It’s not the first crypto treasury to offload some of its crypto assets in order to fund share repurchase agreements. In October, Ethereum treasury firm ETHZilla sold around $40 million in ETH to help buy back shares as its stock traded below the value of its net assets.  Other firms have recently sold Bitcoin to fund other initiatives as well. Riot Platforms dumped $200 million in BTC during November and December amid what analysts believe is a bid to fund its AI initiatives.  Earlier this month publicly traded miner Cango did the same, parting ways with $305 million worth of the top crypto asset.  A representative for GD Culture did not immediately respond to _Decrypt’s _request for comment.