Capital B: share consolidation and strategic fundraising with Adam Back

Ten actions that become one, without a cent changing your pocket. It sounds like a magic trick, but in reality it’s a perfectly classic stock market transaction. Capital B, the Bitcoin Treasury Company listed in Paris, will consolidate its securities at the rate of ten existing shares for a single new one, starting September 8. If you hold 100 stocks today, you will have 10 stocks tomorrow, each worth ten times more than before. Nothing changes in your wallet except the displayed price. The operation comes just a week after raising 7.6 million euros from Adam Back, intended to boost the company's bitcoin cash flow. Two movements, one tight schedule.

A 10-to-1 reverse stock split, the anti-penny stock martingale

The board of directors decided on the terms on July 17, for an announcement the next day. Concretely, the 300,650,632 existing shares, with a nominal value of 0.08 euros each, give way to 30,065,063 new shares, with a nominal value of 0.80 euros. The exchange period runs from August 6 to September 7, with the changeover occurring on September 8 under a new ISIN code. The price follows mechanically: a security which was worth 60 cents will be worth six the next morning, for a strictly identical capitalization.

Why do this to yourself? Many institutional funds simply refrain from buying stocks that trade below a certain price threshold, assimilating it to a signal of fragility. A penny stock also carries a reputation as a “penny stock” that few serious managers want to hear about, even when the company behind it is holding up perfectly. However, by artificially multiplying the displayed price by ten without affecting the value of the company, Capital B hopes to pass this filter.

According to the press release dated July 20, the objective is explicitly to “support the institutional development of the Company and to open its shares to a wider universe of investors”. Shareholders who already own a multiple of ten shares will see nothing more than a different number on their statement. Those who do not have one will be reimbursed in cash for the fractional amount, with payments starting September 14.

7.6 million euros from Adam Back to buy even more bitcoin

Stock consolidation is just the mechanics. New money comes from elsewhere. On September 2, Capital B announced a show reserved for a single investor, Adam Back, co-founder of Blockstream and historical figure of Bitcoin (he invented Hashcash in 1997, the direct ancestor of the proof of work used by the network). He subscribed to 13,181,030 new shares, for a total of 7.6 million euros. Each share purchased is accompanied by four subscription warrants, BSAs, which give the right, but not the obligation, to purchase one more share, later, at a price set today and spread over three maturities at increasing prices. If Adam Back exercises all of these bonds over the next five years, Capital B could raise up to an additional 49.4 million euros.

The objective of the lifting could not be more direct. The €7.6 million could finance the purchase of 376 more bitcoins, bringing the company's potential holding to 3,521 BTC. For Adam Back, the operation also strengthens his capital weight. Its stake has already risen to 17.77% with this single issue, and could reach 27.8% if all of the bonds were one day to be exercised. Enough to sustainably consolidate its position as the largest individual shareholder, alongside its own fund Blockstream Capital Partners, which for its part holds nearly 19% of the capital.

Capital B, second listed Bitcoin treasury in Europe

The company, still known as The Blockchain Group before its identity change in 2025, today holds around 3,145 bitcoins, purchased for a cumulative cost of 284.2 million euros. Enough to place it in second place among Bitcoin treasuries listed in Europe, just behind the German Bitcoin Group SE and its 3,605 BTC. The gap between the two, 460 bitcoins, is about what a single big raise like Adam Back's could close. The ambition goes far beyond this regional ranking: management is targeting 15,000 BTC by the end of 2027, then 1% of the total bitcoin supply by 2033, a horizon modeled on that of the American Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), the original model of the genre.