In brief
- The deal raises roughly $231 million payable in BTC or SolvBTC, issued by Solv Protocol.
- Zeta says the transaction enhances its balance sheet and reflects confidence in Bitcoin’s fundamentals.
- The group touts the deal as a way to fuse Bitcoin’s scarcity with sustainable yield.
Nasdaq-listed fintech firm Zeta Network Group has entered into a $231 million private placement funded in Bitcoin or SolvBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin-backed token issued by Solv Protocol.
The transaction, which the group says will improve its balance sheet, adds a yield-bearing Bitcoin instrument to its treasury at a time when broader crypto markets remain volatile.
The move fits into a growing corporate trend of bringing Bitcoin onto balance sheets through structured vehicles funded primarily through convertible notes, following the digital asset treasury playbook pioneered by Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy.
Just this week, the Michael Saylor-helmed business intelligence firm spent another $27 million on Bitcoin, shortly before it crashed to current prices, now changing hands at around $111,500.
In Asia, Japan’s Metaplanet, along with a newly-formed consortium of investment firms, is steadily building out swaths of Bitcoin holdings across multiple publicly-listed firms.
Transforming idle Bitcoin
The private placement serves both as a financing mechanism and a tool for digital asset treasury management, providing immediate access to fresh capital and enabling Zeta to raise funds faster with less overhead on regulatory compliance.
Zeta’s private placement includes the sale of Class A ordinary shares and accompanying warrants, offered at a combined price of $1.70 per unit. Each warrant can be exercised at $2.55 per share.
The company expects to raise about $230.8 million, payable in Bitcoin or SolvBTC, with the transaction scheduled to close on Friday, pending customary conditions.
For Solv Protocol, the deal marks one of the largest public-market integrations for its wrapped Bitcoin product to date, though the move also limits participation to qualified investors and may dilute existing shareholders.
Still, the partnership opens a way for institutions to “transform idle BTC from a passive store of value into a dynamic, flexible on-chain asset,” that users could, in turn, engage with for yield-generating opportunities, Ryan Chow, CEO of Solv Protocol, told Decrypt.
Working with Zeta validates Solv Protocol’s “focus on institutional-grade infrastructure in a crowded BTCFi space,” Chow said.
SolvBTC keeps every token fully backed by Bitcoin, stored with regulated custodians, and verified on-chain for transparency. Its use by a Nasdaq-listed company is a gesture of “trust from traditional finance,” Chow added.
Zeta Network Group’s chief investment officer, Patrick Ngan, said in a statement shared with Decrypt that the balance-sheet allocation reinforces the group’s “long-term financial position,” adding that the move could enhance their financial resilience through “an instrument that combines Bitcoin’s scarcity with sustainable yield.”
The group claims this demonstrates confidence in Bitcoin’s fundamentals and aligns with its goal of developing a Bitcoin-centric institutional finance platform that combines treasury management, liquidity aggregation, and mining operations within a regulated framework.
Zeta did not disclose details of its accounting treatment for SolvBTC holdings or how the investment will be reported in regulatory filings. Decrypt reached out but did not immediately receive a response from the group.