Semler Scientific acquires $40 million in Bitcoin, stocks surge 32%

Public-listed healthcare company Semler Scientific revealed today the addition of $40 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to its treasury, equivalent to 581 BTC.

“Our Bitcoin treasury strategy and purchase of Bitcoin underscore our belief that Bitcoin is a reliable store of value and a compelling investment,” said Eric Semler, Semler Scientific’s chairman. “Bitcoin is now a major asset class with more than $1 trillion of market value. We believe it has unique characteristics as a scarce and finite asset that can serve as a reasonable inflation hedge and safe haven amid global instability. We also believe its digital, architectural resilience makes it preferable to gold, which has a market value of approximately 10 times that of Bitcoin. Given the gap in value between gold and Bitcoin, we believe that Bitcoin has the potential to generate outsize returns as it gains increasing acceptance as digital gold.”

Notably, Semler Scientific stocks are up by 32.4% at the time of writing, with their price shooting up after their new treasury strategy became public. As of March 31st, the company’s market cap was evaluated at over $205 million.

Moreover, the announcement mentions that Semler Scientific’s board and senior management decided that buying Bitcoin is the “best use” for their excess cash, becoming their principal treasury holding on an ongoing basis.

Semler noted the increasing institutional support for Bitcoin, citing the SEC’s recent approval of 11 Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the significant institutional investments that followed.

Public companies hold 1.5% of the supply

The recent news about Semler Scientific’s Bitcoin foray adds more BTC to the total owned by public companies. Currently, the group owns 312,194 BTC, according to Bitcoin Treasuries. The amount is equivalent to over $21.3 billion, almost 1.5% of Bitcoin’s total supply.

MicroStrategy is still the public-listed company with the largest Bitcoin stash by a large margin, boasting 214,400 BTC in their treasury with an unrealized profit of over $7.3 billion.