Bit Digital’s (BTBT) stock prices rose after the firm announced that it raised an additional $21.4 million after the underwriters of the public offering fully exercised the option to purchase an extra 11.25 million ordinary shares.
This addition brings the total proceeds from the offering to approximately $162.9 million. The company plans to use the funds to accumulate Ethereum (ETH) as part of its overhauled business strategy.
Ethereum Push Drives Bit Digital’s Stock Price Higher
To further increase its Ethereum position, Bit Digital launched a $150 million public offering on June 26. According to the press release, the firm offered 75 million ordinary shares at $2 per share.
Moreover, as part of this offering, the underwriters were granted a 30-day option to purchase an additional 11.25 million shares. They fully exercised this option, raising an additional $21.4 million in net proceeds. Thus, the company sold a total of 86.25 million shares.
“The net proceeds to the Company from the underwritten public offering, including the full exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional ordinary shares, are approximately $162.9 million, after deducting the underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses payable by us. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to purchase Ethereum,” the firm noted.
Notably, the announcement gave the stock prices the much-needed upward push. Although the news of the transition and offering were initially met with declines, the successful fundraising triggered a rise in stock value.
Google Finance data showed the BTBT closed at $2.3, marking a 5.48% increase. Moreover, the price rose further by 2.6% in pre-market trading.
Bit Digital (BTBT) Stock Performance. Source: Google Finance
The rise in stock prices mirrors the pattern observed in firms’ stocks that have adopted a Bitcoin-focused strategy. This shows that, alongside BTC, Ethereum is also gaining institutional and investor confidence as an asset class.
In fact, BitMine’s earlier announcement to commit $250 million toward an ETH treasury led to a dramatic 684.8% increase in its stock price, highlighting the strong market sentiment and investor appetite for Ethereum-focused strategies.
This rise could be attributed to increased optimism in ETH’s price potential. Many anticipate that the growing stablecoin momentum and validator upgrade could drive prices higher. However, broader market conditions have put a slight pressure on ETH’s latest rally.
Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has played a significant role in the GENIUS Act, a bipartisan bill that, if passed, will regulate the use of stablecoins in the United States. But, as a lead co-sponsor of the bill, Gillibrand’s involvement in its passage comes with its share of controversy.
In an investigation into campaign financing during the 2024 federal election cycle, BeInCrypto found that the combined donations from individuals associated with prominent crypto firms—including Coinbase, Ripple, Uniswap Labs, Andreessen Horowitz, and dYdX Trading—exceeded $200,000 for the New York Senator’s campaign.
The GENIUS Act: A Step Closer to Federal Stablecoin Regulation
On Monday night, the Senate advanced the GENIUS Act concerning stablecoins by approving a procedural vote. This vote was for cloture, which limits debate and prevents a filibuster.
The road to getting there was difficult. During a previous Senatorial reunion on May 8, the same vote failed to advance to the final round of discussions. Nine Democratic senators – including Gillibrand – retracted their initial support of the bill during that round of debate.
Opposition to the bill stemmed from several concerns. These included inadequate consumer protections, potential risks to national security, and apprehension regarding how the legislation might be affected by or even exacerbate issues related to President Donald Trump’s involvement in different crypto ventures.
During this latest round, some of those Senators, like Delaware Senator Blunt Rochester, decided to greenlight the bill, while others, like New Jersey Senator Andy Kim, remained unconvinced.
What’s certain is that the US is closer than ever to national crypto legislation on stablecoins. Senator Gillibrand’s efforts significantly influenced the road to get here. Her negotiating skills have been instrumental in securing sufficient Democratic support for the bill at every step.
However, her connections to the crypto industry raise questions about her motivations for advocating its passage.
Which Crypto Firms Contributed to Gillibrand’s Campaign?
Gillibrand has been a Senator for her home state of New York since 2009. Last year, she was re-elected to office for a fourth term.
According to OpenSecrets, a non-profit organization that tracks and publishes campaign finance and lobbying data, Gillibrand received tens of thousands of dollars from individuals representing different crypto entities during the last election cycle.
The sum of contributions from donors associated with Coinbase toward Gillibrand’s 2024 election campaign. Source: OpenSecrets.
Under US federal law, corporations generally cannot donate directly to congressional campaigns. This prohibition applies to contributions from a corporation’s treasury funds.
Nonetheless, OpenSecrets monitors contributions from individuals, who are typically required to disclose their employer when donating.
Considering this information, in 2024, contributors associated with Coinbase were the tenth-largest corporate donors to Off the Sidelines, Senator Gillibrand’s leadership PAC. Together, they donated $59,900 to her re-election campaign.
Following its lead, venture capital firm Andressen Horowitz donated $57,000 to Gillibrand’s efforts. In 16th place was Uniswap Labs, where individuals contributed $48,900.
Ripple donors came in 40th place, contributing a total of $32,000. Further down the list was dYdX Trading, donating $19,200.
Gillibrand received $217,000 in total from these different crypto entities. Searching through the Federal Election Commission (FEC) database, BeinCrypto revealed the identities of some of these independent contributors.
Key Individual Donors to Gillibrand’s Leadership PAC
According to data compiled by the FEC, Gillibrand’s leadership PAC received $366,043.12 worth of individual contributions between 2023 and 2024.
Combining these contributions, BeInCrypto found 10 individual donations from prominent figures who listed Coinbase, Ripple, and Uniswap Labs as their employers.
Individual contributors from Coinbase, Ripple, and Uniswap who donated to Off the Sidelines. Source: FEC.
Under the Federal Election Campaign Act, individuals are generally limited to donating $5,000 per calendar year to a traditional Political Action Committee (PAC). This limit applies per election cycle, meaning separate donations can be made for primary and general elections.
Among Coinbase-associated names were CEO Brian Armstrong and Chief Operating Officer Emilie Choi, who donated a total of $8,300 to Gillibrand’s leadership PAC during last year’s primary elections.
In the case of Uniswap, CEO Hayden Adams and Chief Legal Officer Katherine Minarik each donated $3,300. Marvin Ammori, also a Chief Legal Officer, donated a sum of $7,300 on three separate occasions.
BeinCrypto found no individual contributions from dYdX or Andressen Horowitz employees to Gillibrand’s leadership PAC.
Is Crypto Funding Influencing Congressional Impartiality?
Campaign financing from prominent names in the crypto industry, whether from political action committees or individual contributors, became a household activity during last year’s elections.
According to a report by Public Citizen, Behemoths like Coinbase and Ripple Labs each contributed $50 million to Fairshake, the crypto super PAC that spent $119 million during the 2024 federal elections.
In fact, OpenSecrets labeled Fairshake as one of the few Super PACs that qualify as bipartisan committees. Crypto contributions toward Republican and Democratic candidates alike demonstrate the industry’s broad range of investments to achieve a brighter regulatory future for crypto in Washington.
But they also raise questions over the impartiality of congressional representatives like Senator Gillibrand when it comes to voting on legislation that will directly impact the businesses of the very actors who contributed to their political campaigns.
Base, a Layer-2 (L2) blockchain developed by Coinbase, transitioned from a Stage 0 to Stage 1 rollup, effectively overtaking Arbitrum (ARB) as the largest Ethereum scaling solution.
Stages refer to a framework for assessing the maturity of L2 rollups, based on milestones proposed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
Base Becomes Largest Ethereum L2, Arbitrum Follows
Data on L2Beat shows Arbitrum One is no longer the largest optimistic rollup on Ethereum. L2Beat is an analytics and research website focused on Ethereum layer-2 scaling.
After a $557 million surge in TVL (Total Value Locked), Base has overtaken Arbitrum L2, with a margin of more than $710 million in total value secured (TVS).
Alongside overtaking Arbitrum One, Base has also matured from Stage 0, where the rollup is fully controlled by its operators (full training wheels).
It is now a Stage 1 rollup, featuring smart contract governance. However, because a security council remains in place to handle potential bugs, this stage features “limited training wheels.”
“Proud that Base is now stage 1 — and #1 by TVS but it’s still day one. Time to bring the world on-chain,” wrote Base creator Jesse Pollak.
“Welcome to the full-EVM stage 1 gang Base,” Buterin remarked.
The Ethereum executive said he would only recognize L2 networks that reach stage 1+ maturity. Buterin referred to his threshold for measuring different stages of L2s based on a decentralization scale.
“Stage 1 (75% threshold on the council to override the proof system, 26%+ of the council must be outside the rollup team) is a very reasonable moderate milestone. The multisigs I am in have not had a single liveness failure in years, let alone 26%. The era of rollups being glorified multisigs is ending. The era of cryptographic trust is upon us,” Buterin explained.
This ultimatum aligned with Buterin’s vision of advancing cryptographic trust. Recently, Buterin proposed a plan to scale Ethereum’s L1 and L2 protocols in 2025.
While this is the first time Base has overtaken Arbitrum, it is not the first time it has challenged its market position. In hindsight, Base TVL surpassed $2 billion in September after 400% growth, which saw it close in on Arbitrum’s $2.6 billion TVL.
Aerodrome remains the leading protocol on Base L2. It boasts up to $830 million in TVL, up 5% in the last week. Other leading protocols on Base include Morpho, Aave, and Uniswap.
As Base takes the lead, it is impossible to forget Arbitrum’s Achilles’ Heel. The network is still digging out of an 80% crash. Key interventions to recover include token buybacks and the recently rejected Nvidia accelerator program bid.
Prenetics, a US-based healthcare firm backed by football star David Beckham, is the newest corporate Bitcoin holder with a $20 million investment. This announcement caused its stock price to soar.
With this investment, Prenetics becomes the first publicly listed healthcare firm to invest in BTC. The company is mainly headquartered in Hong Kong and has multiple subsidiaries worldwide.
Prenetics is the newest company to join in, purchasing $20 million in Bitcoin at an average price of $106,712.
“What excites me most is not just Bitcoin as a treasury asset, but the convergence we’re witnessing between healthcare innovation and blockchain technology. We’re at the dawn of a new era where genomics, personalized medicine, and digital assets will intersect in ways that could revolutionize how we approach human health, longevity and wealth,” claimed CEO Danny Yeung.
Additionally, it doesn’t seem like this Bitcoin acquisition is a limited experiment. The company recently appointed Andy Cheung, former COO at OKEx, to its Board of Directors.
Cheung has been in the space for over a decade, and his appointment symbolizes a long-term commitment.
Prenetics is the first healthcare firm to acquire Bitcoin, but it doesn’t plan to rest on these laurels.
The firm also employed two other crypto advisors to build this strategy, Token2049 founder Raphael Strauch and Tracy Hoyos Lopez, Chief of Staff for Strategic Initiatives at Kraken. Together, they have ambitious plans for Web3 growth:
“We now have the financial foundation to pioneer innovative treasury management approaches, including our historic Bitcoin treasury strategy. But this is just the beginning – we have the capital partnerships and conviction to build one of the most significant Bitcoin treasuries in healthcare,” Yeung added.
Additionally, although David Beckham is largely invested in Prenetics, he doesn’t seem personally involved in this Bitcoin plan. Still, the Football industry has been involved in crypto for years, and a famous French team began its own reserve last month.
Beckham’s association with the brand could help further encourage top-level sports professionals to invest in this industry.
