Publicly traded medtech buys $40M bitcoin in nod to MicroStrategy

Semler Scientific, a publicly traded medical tech company, joined MicroStrategy by buying up millions of bitcoin

article-image

Semler Scientific and Adobe Stock modified by Blockworks

share

Semler Scientific, a medical technology company, announced that it bought 581 bitcoin for roughly $40 million. 

The company also adopted bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset. 

Semler is listed on Nasdaq under the ticker SMLR. The stock took off after the announcement, soaring over $25 at time of publication. 

“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, in a press release

The company, he added, believes that bitcoin can act as an inflation hedge and safe haven against global instability. 

Read more: Q&A: Lemon CFO sees spike in Argentina bitcoin demand as locals flee inflation

“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,” Semler added. 

In April, Coinbase analyst David Han said that bitcoin’s rising correlation to gold could “signal its increased footing as a sensitive macro asset in the absence of crypto-specific catalysts like spot ETF approvals.”

The company will now devote excess cash to buying bitcoin, though it’ll continually monitor the “anticipated cash needs” of the company. 

Semler’s strategy shifts puts it in the same playing field as MicroStrategy, though the latter has billions worth of bitcoin

And it’s not the only company to recently make the move to prioritize bitcoin. Japanese company Metaplanet announced earlier this year that it would be making a “strategic treasury transformation” after the Japanese yen exhibited weakness. 

While US-based Semler doesn’t have to deal with the same currency issues as the Japanese company, the shift shows that companies are taking a look at bitcoin.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (10).png

Research

Innovations on Aptos’ technical design through Raptr, Shardines, and Zaptos approach near-optimal latency and throughput by unlocking 100% utilization of network resources, with the capacity to settle 260k transactions per second with latencies less than 800ms. The original Move language was revamped with the launch of Move 2, supporting more expressivity in smart contract logic and a scalable ability to interact with high volume datasets. The ecosystem has benefitted from strong asset inflows, now hosting over $1.3B in stablecoins, $450M in bridged BTC, and $530M in RWAs. Activity in the Aptos ecosystem has grown notably over the past year, with monthly application revenue reaching ~$835k and monthly DEX volumes growing to over $5B, both at new all time highs.

article-image

Interchain Labs will focus on sovereign L1s and institutional demand, abandoning plans for smart contracts on the Cosmos Hub

article-image

Also, only three tokens have outperformed bitcoin so far this year: XMR, HYPE and SKY

article-image

The fund group has submitted proposals in recent months for other funds that would hold litecoin, solana, XRP, HBAR, Sui and others

article-image

Momentum’s back — BTC leads, risk assets follow

article-image

Ondo Finance’s acquisition of blockchain development company Strangelove follows its buy of Oasis Pro

article-image

Cryptocurrency and stock traders alike had a lot to unpack Wednesday