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MoneyConf 2018 - Day One
Anthony Pompliano (Harry Murphy/Getty Images)

Anthony Pompliano announces $1 billion SPAC deal to jumpstart ProCap Financial, a new bitcoin treasury firm

Sequans Communications also disclosed a $384 million investment to roll out its bitcoin treasury initiative today.

Sage D. Young

Entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano announced today a $1-billion deal with a special purpose acquisition company (that is, a SPAC) to establish ProCap Financial Inc. as a publicly-traded, bitcoin-native financial services company. 

Pompliano said on X, “The company will be a publicly traded entity on Nasdaq at the conclusion of the proposed business combination between my private company ProCap BTC, LLC and Columbus Circle Capital Corp I, a publicly traded SPAC.” 

According to the press release, the two entities raised $516.5 million in equity and $235 million in convertible notes to create the new firm, “the largest initial fundraise in history for a public bitcoin treasury company.”

Sequans Communications, a supplier of 5G semiconductors, also announced a bitcoin treasury initiative Monday. The firm is issuing and selling $195 million in equity securities and $189 million in a principal amount of convertible secured debentures, and will partner with US-based company Swan Bitcoin to help with its treasury strategy operations. 

The announcements of ProCap Financial and Sequans Communications come as more corporate firms initiate digital asset treasuries, such as Trump Media and GameStop.

Even though Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the pioneer in bitcoin treasuries, has seen extraordinary gains in the price of its shares, the pivot to bitcoin may be losing its luster.

“I don’t think it’s set to lose its appeal anytime soon. It’s still another risk asset which, if you believe price predictions, will benefit your balance sheet in the long-term,” Nicolai Søndergaard, a research analyst at blockchain analytics firm Nansen, told Sherwood News. 

However, Maksim Tkachuk, an analyst at on-chain data platform Santiment, expressed a cautionary skepticism. “There’s only so many failed companies and mattress salesmen that bitcoin can accommodate without toppling,” he told Sherwood.

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28

The decentralized finance ecosystem had a brutal April, logging the highest monthly number of exploits ever at 28 hacks, with exploiters siphoning off a total of $635.2 million, data from DefiLlama shows. 

The two largest exploits in April occurred on ethereum-based protocol KelpDAO and solana-native trading venue Drift. The incidents rattled on-chain users, as the total value locked in DeFi across all networks dropped from a monthly high of $99.5 billion to $84.3 billion on Friday. 

“It’s a real problem, and if AI proponents (thinking specifically of Anthropic’s claims about Mythos) are to be believed, it’s only going to get worse,” according to Fredrick Collins, CEO of crypto analytics platform Velo.xyz. Collins argued that these exploits act as a significant limiter of institutional appeal, pointing to TheBlock’s report last week that JPMorgan held a similar view. 

“It’s simple — for many people, having any chance that you lose your entire investment or balance in something supposed to be ‘safe’ is too much to bear,” Collins told Sherwood News. 

However, not everyone thinks the recent hacks will curb interest from institutions. Nicolai Søndergaard, a research analyst at blockchain data firm Nansen, said to Sherwood, “I do not think these hacks will be a limit to institutional capital given the impact of AI and the speed at which threats appear stretch far beyond this industry.” 

Søndergaard continued, “Crypto to me seems to have been hit harder as many projects perhaps wanted to get a product out there quickly and didn’t invest enough in security, even with companies around to audit.” 

DeFi aims to enable internet users to have access to financial services, such as borrowing, lending, and trading, without any centralized intermediaries.

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Riot Platforms rises following Q1 revenue beat

The bitcoin miner turned data center operator released first-quarter earnings that surpassed expectations for revenue. Shares built on strong gains from Thursday’s session in after-hours trading following the results.

Riot Platforms reported:

  • Q1 revenue of $167.2 million, growing 3.6% from the same quarter a year ago and surpassing analysts’ expectations of $131 million.

  • A diluted loss per share of $1.44, much worse than analysts’ consensus estimate of a $0.72 loss, which includes unrealized loss on its bitcoin holdings.

The bulk of companys revenue stems from its bitcoin mining activity, which made up $111.9 million in the quarter, while its data center housing revenue stood at $33.2 million, per its press release.

The first quarter of 2026 marks an inflection point for Riot. CFO Jason Chung said on Thursday in the firms Q1 earnings conference call, With the delivery of our first 5 megawatts to AMD this quarter, Riot is now an active data center operator, and for the first time, our top line now includes contracted lease revenue from an investment-grade tenant.

The earnings report comes the same week the company announced amending its $200 million credit agreement with Coinbase by replacing a floating interest rate with a fixed rate, according to an SEC filing dated on Monday.

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