Why Public Companies Are Buying Bitcoin

Welcome to BitcoinFi Weekly. We cover where people use their BTC and what is changing in the Bitcoin world.

What, exactly, is Bitcoin? For over a decade, the answer has depended on who you ask. To some, it's a pristine hedge against inflation, digital gold for the 21st century. To others, it remains true to its whitepaper roots as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. But what if a new, more powerful answer is emerging, forged not in cypherpunk forums but in corporate boardrooms? This week, our feature piece explores why a new class of "Bitcoin Treasury Corporation" is betting everything on BTC, and in doing so, might just be providing the most definitive answer yet.

Here’s this week’s rundown:

🏢 Feature Piece: Why Public Companies Are Buying Bitcoin

🇺🇸 White House Paves Way for Bitcoin in 401(k)s

🏔️ Alpen’s Public Testnet is Live

🔐 Glock: A new way to bridge BTC

Feature Piece: Why Public Companies Are Buying Bitcoin

The emergence of the Bitcoin Treasury Corporation marks a pivotal and audacious chapter in the history of corporate finance. What began as a cautious dip into digital waters—a defensive hedge against the erosion of fiat currency—has rapidly evolved into a sophisticated and aggressive strategy for value creation. This transformation has given rise to a new archetype: the publicly traded company whose primary mission is the relentless accumulation of Bitcoin. These entities are fundamentally re-engineering their corporate identity and capital structure around Bitcoin, and it merits really diving into why.

From Defensive Hedge to Offensive Capital Engine

The journey into corporate Bitcoin adoption has occurred in two distinct waves, each with a fundamentally different strategic intent. The first wave saw established, profitable companies like Tesla and Block add Bitcoin to their treasuries as a supplementary investment—a rational, if novel, hedge against a macroeconomic environment of unprecedented monetary expansion. This was a defensive maneuver aimed at preserving capital.

The second, far more revolutionary, wave saw the birth of the Bitcoin Treasury Corporation. The market's euphoric reaction to the strategy pioneered by Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) was the catalyst for this shift. When the company began aggressively acquiring Bitcoin, the market rewarded Strategy, creating a significant premium over the value of its underlying assets.

This "Strategy Premium" created a powerful arbitrage opportunity. A new breed of company realized it could leverage its public status to access capital markets, issue debt and equity, and acquire Bitcoin, capturing this valuation premium for its shareholders. The corporate balance sheet was transformed from a safety net into a "capital refinery," marking a paradigm shift from a reactive, defensive posture to a proactive, value-generative one.

The rationale is multifaceted. Beyond the desire to replicate Strategy's success through leveraged exposure, adopting a Bitcoin strategy is a powerful tool for brand transformation. A more provocative argument has also emerged, framing the strategy as a fiduciary duty. If markets reward allocating capital to a Bitcoin treasury more than reinvesting in the core business, management may be responsible for pursuing the higher return. This movement has been further accelerated by a softening regulatory environment, including a crucial accounting rule change from FASB allowing for fair-value reporting of crypto assets, which provides a clearer financial picture and reduces earnings volatility.

The Financial Pathways to a Bitcoin Treasury

The ambitious accumulation strategies of these new corporations require two things: a public listing to access capital markets and a mechanism to raise the vast sums of money required. They have largely eschewed the traditional IPO in favor of a more agile and complex financial toolkit.

1. The Reverse Merger: This has become a favored express lane to a public listing. By merging with an existing publicly-traded "shell" company, a private entity can become public in a fraction of the time it takes to conduct an IPO. However, the reverse merger itself raises no capital. Its true strategic value is revealed as the first step in a two-part maneuver. The rapid public listing is almost always followed by the simultaneous announcement of a massive, pre-negotiated capital injection, typically in the form of a Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE). This sequence, as seen in the case of Nakamoto (NAKA), uses the merger for speed and the PIPE for capital and, just as importantly, institutional validation.
2. The SPAC: The Special Purpose Acquisition Company, or SPAC, offers another alternative. While theoretically providing a pre-funded pool of capital, the SPAC model has been challenged by high shareholder redemption rates. This has fundamentally shifted the center of gravity in these deals. The PIPE raised concurrently with the de-SPAC announcement has evolved from a "backstop" into the most critical source of both funding and market validation. The success of a SPAC transaction today is less about the size of its IPO trust and more about the sponsor's ability to secure commitments from sophisticated PIPE investors.
3. The PIPE Deal: The Private Investment in Public Equity is the linchpin of the entire ecosystem. Whether used to fund a reverse merger, guarantee a SPAC transaction, or fuel the ongoing accumulation of an already-public company, the PIPE is the essential financing catalyst. When respected institutional investors commit hundreds of millions of dollars to a PIPE, they are doing more than providing capital; they are providing an institutional stamp of approval. This acts as a powerful due diligence proxy for the broader market, signaling that sophisticated players have vetted the strategy and the management team, thereby building credibility and countering the negative perceptions sometimes associated with unconventional listing methods.

The Future is a Refinery

The rise of spot Bitcoin ETFs has commoditized simple exposure to the asset. To justify their existence and market premiums long-term, Bitcoin Treasury Companies must offer something more. The future lies in the "Refinery Model." This conceives of the corporate Bitcoin treasury not as a static asset to be held, but as a raw monetary resource to be actively "refined" into a suite of structured financial products—from their own leveraged equity and convertible debt to yield-bearing instruments. An ETF cannot issue convertible bonds or use its assets as collateral for an M&A growth strategy. A Bitcoin Treasury Company can. Their durable value proposition is not holding the asset, but financial engineering on top of it.

This trend is also developing unique characteristics globally. In emerging markets like those in Latin America and Africa, the motivation is fundamentally defensive—a flight from hyperinflation where Bitcoin's volatility is preferable to the certain depreciation of the local currency.

Our full deep-dive report will provide a more granular analysis of the specific debt instruments, valuation models, and risk frameworks employed by these companies. Stay tuned.

BitcoinFi Updates

White House Paves Way for Bitcoin in 401(k)s

On August 7, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order aimed at democratizing access to digital or “alternative assets” for the more than 90 million Americans with 401(k) retirement plans. The order directs the Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission to revise regulations and clarify fiduciary duties, explicitly removing barriers preventing plan managers from including private equity, real estate, and digital assets.A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows the immense potential of this policy shift. The U.S. 401(k) market holds approximately $9 trillion in assets. A conservative 5% allocation creates $450 billion in potential allocation capacity. Measured against Bitcoin’s current market capitalization in the low $2 trillion range, that scale is material. Directionally, introducing recurring paycheck contributions would create programmatic inflows, similar to how major stock indices have benefited for decades from target-date auto-investing.

However, seeing this as a pathway, not an on-switch, is crucial. Several gating items must be cleared before capital can flow:

1. Department of Labor Guidance: The DOL must issue a clear memo on the fiduciary process and define the "safe harbor" contours for plan sponsors.
2. SEC Rulemaking: The SEC must provide guidance on structuring crypto exposure within funds eligible for defined-contribution plans.
3. Employer Adoption: Adoption by plan sponsors will likely be gradual. Most will start by including small "sleeves" of crypto exposure inside diversified multi-asset funds, not by offering a standalone "Crypto" option on day one.

This initiative will not open the floodgates overnight. Instead, if the rulemaking lands cleanly and major recordkeepers like Fidelity and Vanguard list compliant products, Bitcoin should see the emergence of steadier, dollar-cost-averaged demand.

Alpen’s Public Testnet is Live

Alpen Labs launched their public testnet, bringing DeFi primitives (borrowing, trading, yield, stablecoins) to Bitcoin through an EVM-compatible layer. The testnet features their first optimistic verifier inspired by BitVM2, with plans to upgrade to "Glock"—a new verifier design that's allegedly 1000x more efficient.

Context matters here. Last year's Bitcoin L2 gold rush was crypto at its worst—AI-generated whitepapers, partnership announcements with vaporware, and VCs pivoting from dead narratives. The "smart contract renaissance for Bitcoin" pitch attracted every zombie project looking for resurrection. In 12 months, we saw exactly one legitimate L2 launch.

Alpen feels different. They're shipping actual code with novel verification methods. The BitVM2-inspired verifier works today, and Glock (if real) represents genuine technical innovation. This isn't another "we forked Polygon and called it a Bitcoin L2" situation.

If Alpen succeeds in making Bitcoin DeFi viable, we're about to witness Bitcoin L2 spam that makes last year look quaint. Success will commoditize the tech stack—suddenly launching a "Bitcoin-secured network" will take weeks, not years. Every failed Ethereum L2 will rebrand as Bitcoin-aligned. Every dead project will find new life claiming Bitcoin security.

What to watch:

• Whether major Bitcoin holders actually bridge assets (vs. just using wrapped BTC on other chains)
• If the optimistic challenge mechanism holds up under adversarial conditions
• Whether Bitcoin maxis accept this as "real" Bitcoin finance or reject it as affinity scamming

Glock: A new way to bridge BTC

Bitcoin L2s need secure bridges to move BTC back to L1. Current solutions either require months (BitVM1), cost millions (BitVM2), or need impractical computing resources (BitVM3 with 10+ billion gates). None are production-ready. The main challenge is securely verifying that withdrawals coming back to Bitcoin are legitimate, without clogging or changing the main network. Glock is a new, highly efficient system for verifying these withdrawals. It uses an "optimistic" model where transactions are assumed valid unless challenged. If a challenge occurs, Glock uses a combination of garbled circuits and a custom Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proof to verify the transaction off-chain.

Alpen's breakthrough uses a custom Designated Verifier (DV) Snark, which reduces complexity from billions of gates to ~12 million—a 100x+ improvement that makes it actually runnable on standard hardware.How It Works:

• Optimistic verification: Withdrawals assumed valid unless challenged
• 1-of-N security: Need just one honest operator among 15-100 to prevent fraud
• Off-chain efficiency: No data posting unless there's fraud
• Low stakes: 0.2-0.5 BTC per operator (vs. massive amounts in BitVM2)
• Fast resolution: 1-3 weeks for challenges

Glock might be the first Bitcoin bridge design that's both secure and efficient enough for production. It's not perfect trustlessness, but it's 1-of-N trust with reasonable hardware requirements—potentially the "good enough" solution Bitcoin L2s have been waiting for.

Closing Thoughts

This week's developments, from corporate treasury strategies and regulatory green lights in Washington to deep technical innovation with Glock, all point to a powerful theme: the activation of Bitcoin.What is Bitcoin? Is it digital gold—a hedge against the debasement of fiat currencies in an era of unprecedented money printing? Is it Satoshi's original vision of peer-to-peer electronic cash, freeing humanity from the tyranny of banks? Or has it evolved into something else entirely—a financial engineering platform where public companies can transform their balance sheets into capital refineries, leveraging debt markets to accumulate an asset that trades at multiples of its book value? Perhaps Bitcoin's true genius is that it refuses to be just one thing. It morphs to meet the moment, adapting to whatever narrative the market needs most.

If there's a topic you’d like us to cover or have questions, reach out at [email protected].