Semler Scientific acquires 247 bitcoins, announces $150 million raise to buy more

Nasdaq-traded healthcare tech firm Semler Scientific announced Thursday that it purchased 247 bitcoins for $17 million worth of cash. It plans to raise funds worth $150 million to further increase its bitcoin holdings. 

The company has already amassed a total of 828 BTC +0.14% that it acquired for an aggregate of $57 million, according to its press release . At bitcoin's current value , Semler’s BTC portfolio is worth nearly $59 million.

"Semler remains focused on our two strategies of expanding our healthcare business and acquiring and holding bitcoin," said Semler Scientific CEO Doug Murphy-Chutorian. “We will continue to pursue our strategy of purchasing bitcoins with cash." 

According to the firm’s S-3 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Semler Scientific said it will raise an additional $150 million worth of debt securities. The firm noted that it will use a portion of the planned raise to purchase more bitcoin.

“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,” said the filing — which further said that the company does not plan to purchase other types of cryptocurrencies.

Meanwhile, the company acknowledged in the filing that bitcoin has been, and will likely continue to be, highly volatile. “Future fluctuations in bitcoin trading prices may result in our converting bitcoin purchased with the net proceeds from this offering into cash with a value substantially below the net proceeds from this offering,” the statement said.

Semler Scientific closed Thursday down 2.48%, inching down an extra 1.17% in the after hours, Yahoo Finance data showed.

According to BitcoinTreasuries.net , public companies around the world hold 308,689 BTC in total, led by Microstrategy, Inc., which has 214,400 BTC under its belt.