Publicly traded Brazilian fintech company Méliuz has dubbed itself the South American's first Bitcoin treasury company after spending over $28 million on the cryptocurrency.
Méliuz, a Brazilian household name that offers customers cashback coupons and trades on the country's oldest stock exchange (B3: CASH3), first announced its plans to buy Bitcoin in March, sending its stock soaring.
And on Friday, after announcing it had snapped up 274.52 BTC for $28.4 billion, at an average price of $101,703 per virtual coin, its shares rocketed even more—recently trading up 26%.
Historic day! Our shareholders have approved, by a wide majority, the transformation of Méliuz into the first Bitcoin Treasury Company listed in Brazil.
And today, we took another step forward: Acquired 274.52 BTC for US$ 28.4M Average price: US$ 103,604 Achieving a BTC Yield of… pic.twitter.com/y12JlKwW6N
"Rather than just allocating part of its cash to Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation or currency devaluation, the company has repositioned its purpose to act by maximizing the amount of Bitcoin per share," the company said in a statement.
Ray Nasser, who heads up the Latin America arm of trading firm BlockFills, told Decrypt that the company was copying Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) to help get shareholders more value for money.
"The company lost its relevance over the years, and its stock price went down," he said. "Although it made a turnaround in 2024, it's doing what Strategy is doing now, it's riding a hype. Bitcoin is an excellent reserve. It has something to do with its core business but not entirely."
He added: "This is a shift away from its core business but its stock has seen the hype and benefits. It's working out for them."
Bitcoin treasuries are companies that buy Bitcoin and allow investors to get exposure to the price of the cryptocurrency by buying the firm's stock.
American software firm Strategy started buying Bitcoin in 2020 and has since sped up its buys as the price of its stock has rocketed.
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