Bitcoin holding company Nakamoto Holdings, the firm founded by crypto media entrepreneur David Bailey, has raked in an additional $51.5 million to establish a Bitcoin treasury—a corporate strategy that has become increasingly popular among public companies. 

The funds were raised in a private-investment-in-public-equity deal closed on Friday by Nakamoto’s merger partner KindlyMD, according to KindlyMD’s statement. The healthcare data firm sold its common stock at $5 per share in the raise.  

“Additional investor support signals confidence in Nakamoto’s strategy: acquiring as much Bitcoin as possible on our balance sheet and on the balance sheets of our future portfolio companies,” Bailey told Decrypt. “Today’s announcement propels our mission forward as we gain momentum in bringing Bitcoin exposure to global capital markets.”

The total will largely go toward acquiring Bitcoin for Nakamoto Holdings’ corporate treasury. 

“We continue to execute our strategy to raise as much capital as possible to acquire as much bitcoin as possible,” Bailey said in a statement, adding that the raise took less than three days.

This latest raise brings Nakamoto Holdings’ earmarked funds for its Bitcoin treasury to $763 million.

Bitcoin was recently trading at $102,942, down 1.8% over the past 24 hours, according to cryptocurrency data provider CoinGecko. 

Launched earlier this year by BTC Inc. CEO David Bailey, Nakamoto Holdings aims to snap up large quantities of Bitcoin, banking on the likelihood that the token’s price will increase. The strategy that has gained traction in the corporate world, even among firms with very little or no connection to the digital assets industry. 

In recent weeks, a number of analysts have raised concerns about the risk for these firms if BTC’s price falls, and if a firm’s overall financial performance depends too much on its holdings. 

More than 130 public companies, according to bitcointreasuries.net, have added massive amounts of Bitcoin to their balance sheets—a move popularized by Michael Saylor’s software firm Strategy, which began purchasing the asset in 2020. 

Strategy holds more than 592,000 Bitcoin at a value of more than $60 billion, according to Saylor Tracker, an online tool that tracks the firm’s Bitcoin purchases. 

More broadly, 239 entities, including public and private firms and federal governments—hold at least some Bitcoin, according to data from bitcointreasuries.net. That number of entities HODL-ing the world’s oldest crypto has jumped roughly 14% over the past month, the same data shows. 

Edited by James Rubin