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The long-awaited expansion will be a welcome addition for many users.

The Paris-based crypto company Blockchain Group is adding more Bitcoin to its growing treasury through a 63.3 million euro ($72 million) bond sale.

The company hopes to buy another 590 Bitcoin (BTC) with the funds, increasing its total holdings to 1,437 BTC, the Blockchain Group said on May 26.

Bitcoin is trading at over $109,00, and at current prices, the Blockchain Group could buy 658 BTC with the total amount it raised, according to CoinGecko.

However, the company said only 95% of the proceeds from the issuance will be used to buy Bitcoin; the remainder is marked for “operational expenses and to pay management fees.”

Venture capital firm Fulgur Ventures invested the lion’s share for the bond sale, with 55.3 million euros ($62.9 million), while crypto private investment fund Moonlight Capital invested 5 million euros ($5.7 million). The bonds will be convertible into shares of the Blockchain Group at 3.809 euros ($4.34).

The Blockchain Group (ALTBG) is listed on Euronext Paris, Europe’s second-largest stock exchange by market cap. The company’s website says it is focused on “increasing the number of Bitcoin per share over time by leveraging the holding company’s excess cash and appropriate financing instruments.”

ALTBG closed May 26 trading down nearly 5.5% at 2.77 euros ($3.16), but has gained nearly 766% so far this year, according to Google Finance. After the company started buying Bitcoin on Nov. 5, the stock spiked 225% to 0.48 euros ($0.52).

In its 2024 financial year results, released April 30, the Blockchain Group listed the current yield from its Bitcoin holdings at over 709%.

Meanwhile, its total consolidated revenue for the year was 13,864,000 euros ($15.8 million) compared to 20,408,000 euros ($23.2 million) for the previous fiscal year, representing a decrease of 32.1%.

As part of its results, the company said its long-term strategy is to acquire 1% of the total Bitcoin supply over the next eight years, with a target of over 170 by 2032.

More companies take the “orange pill”

A growing number of public companies are buying Bitcoin to hold for the long term in the hopes of making gains from the asset.

Related: Metaplanet is raising another $21M through bonds to buy more Bitcoin

Swedish health tech company H100 Group AB became one of the latest companies to take the orange pill after announcing a Bitcoin-buying pivot on May 22. 

Strive Asset Management also announced on May 7 that it will transition into a Bitcoin treasury company.

Experts speculate there are tangible long-term benefits for a company holding Bitcoin despite its unpredictable volatility, such as a hedge against inflation, long-term price appreciation and theoretically lower correlation to equity markets over time.

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A second person suspected of being involved in a high-profile crypto kidnapping case in New York City is expected to turn himself in to police, according to several reports.

The second man is a Swiss crypto investor who allegedly assisted business partner Joel Woeltz, who is accused of kidnapping Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan and torturing him in a Soho apartment in an attempt to pressure him into revealing his crypto wallet phrase, ABC7 New York reported on May 26.

A separate NBC report said the Swiss trader —  who is not named — would turn himself over to police within a week. However, FOX5 New York reported that the man may already be in custody, citing conflicting sources.

The New York Post reported that the man is the co-founder of a Swiss trading firm.

Woeltz, known as the “crypto king of Kentucky,” is facing several charges, including kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and assault. He allegedly held the victim at his apartment for 17 days.

Woeltz’s assistant, Italian-born Beatrice Folchi, was also arrested, however, she was freed, and no charges have been laid against her.

The arrests came after Teofrasto Carturan, aged 28 from Italy, managed to escape the apartment on May 23 — the day he had allegedly been told would be his “death day.”

CNN reported that Teofrasto Carturan agreed to give up his crypto seed phrase, which was stored on his laptop in another room, and as he went to get his laptop, Woeltz turned his back, allowing him to bolt to the exit.

Several New York news outlets shared videos of the victim running outside, barefoot, toward a traffic officer.

Sometime after, police arrested Woeltz at his Soho apartment and took him into custody.

He remains detained, and his next court date is set for May 28.

Alleged victim shares ordeal

Teofrasto Carturan claimed to police that he arrived from Italy on May 6 and went to the Soho apartment to meet his “business partners.”

Sometime later, he claimed his passport was token he was tortured to reveal his crypto seed phrase. NBC New York reported that Teofrasto Carturan has an estimated net worth of around $30 million.

Related: NYC Mayor doubles down on crypto push ahead of city summit

Police said Teofrasto Carturan was tied up with electrical cords and electrocuted. His feet were also tased while submerged in water and the alleged perpetrators held an electric chainsaw to his leg, threatening to cut off his limbs.

Police claimed they found a Polaroid of the alleged perpetrators torturing Teofrasto Carturan, one showing him bound to a chair with a gun to his head. 

Teofrasto Carturan was also allegedly forced to smoke crack cocaine and was urinated on in the Soho apartment, described by NBC New York reporters as a “high-end frat house” with stripper poles and expensive liquor scattered throughout the five-story building.

Carturan spent some time being treated at a hospital after escaping, the New York Post said.

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Bitlayer’s Bitcoin smart-contract system is being implemented by mining pools behind 31.5% of the network’s hashrate, a development that will help ensure that its system will operate on the Bitcoin blockchain, the company said.

According to a May 27 announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Bitlayer’s BitVM implementation will be supported by major Bitcoin (BTC) mining pools including Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool. Antpool CEO Andy Chow said:

“Antpool has become the bridge operator for Bitlayer to support Bitcoin innovation and protect miners’ interests.”

BitVM (Bitcoin Virtual Machine) is a framework that enables complex smart contracts to be deployed on the Bitcoin blockchain without changing the base protocol. The idea was introduced by Robin Linux in 2023, and allows for the complex computation involved in smart contract systems to be verified onchain and executed offchain in a way resembling optimistic rollups.

Related: Here’s how Bitcoin is transforming into Web3’s backbone

A BitVM implementation

Bitlayer is a BitVM implementation, aiming to allow Bitcoin to flow through decentralized finance (DeFi) systems and layer-2 networks. According to Chow, the implementation might lead to heightened activity in Bitcoin’s network and generate revenue for miners:

“This expansion of Bitcoin’s use cases will drive more network activity, generating additional transaction fees and revenue opportunities for miners. As block rewards decrease over time, growing fee markets are critical for miners’ sustainable income.“

Mining pools such as Chow’s Antpool play a critical role in the adoption of BitVM implementations because they directly determine the inclusion and validation of new types of transactions and scripts at the consensus layer.

BitVM requires miners to include custom Taproot-based transactions that encode interactive verification logic. Mining pools must agree to include these non-standard or computationally intensive scripts in blocks, otherwise the protocol would simply not function.

Related: StarkWare researchers propose smart contracts for Bitcoin with ColliderVM

Mining pool support

According to Hashrate Index data, Antpool controls 17.2% of Bitcoin’s hashrate as of May 26, while F2Pool controls 8.2% and Spiderpool 6.1%. This results in a total supporting hashrate of 31.5%.

This is enough to secure transaction inclusion in under one in every three blocks. This is presumably enough for testing, prototyping and early-stage applications.

With this percentage of supporting hashrate, developers can build functional systems with the assumption that, despite some latency, BitVM transactions will be processed. So while it is hard to view this hashrate as allowing a fully functional deployment, it is likely enough for the early phases of BitVM development.

A Bitlayer representative told Cointelegraph that “should collective hashrate support weaken or policy shifts occur within Bitcoin Core, we have a multi-layered contingency plan.” This plan includes the “expanded mining pool partnerships,” referring to the company’s intention to keep onboarding more mining pools.

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Bluesky’s also taking a different approach to scaling verification.

Now’s the time to tap into NBA conversation.