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

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. 

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“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.

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