Africa’s First Bitcoin Treasury Reserve Aims To Raise $210 Million

Editorial Note: While we adhere to strict Editorial Integrity, this post may contain references to products from our partners. Here's an explanation for How We Make Money. None of the data and information on this webpage constitutes investment advice according to our Disclaimer.

Africa Bitcoin Corp, formerly Altvest Capital, plans to raise $210 million to build Africa’s first Bitcoin treasury reserve. Inspired by Michael Saylor’s strategy, the company aims to grow its BTC holdings and give investors exposure to cryptocurrency as a long-term store of value.

It was only a matter of time before an African company announced it was going all-in on bitcoin. That day has arrived. Altvest Capital, an alternative finance company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, says it will change its name to Africa Bitcoin Corp (ABC) and plans to raise $210 million to pursue an incremental Bitcoin reserve strategy.

Helming the operation is tech entrepreneur and former Google executive Stafford Masie and Warren Wheatley, the current CEO of Altvest.

What makes this interesting is that both Masie and Wheatley, both products of South African “townships” where poverty is rampant, are bitcoin maximalists – adherents of the idea that Bitcoin (BTC) represents the best store of value available in the world and should be aggressively accumulated.

The Michael Saylor of South Africa

Masie – often referred to as the Michael Saylor of South Africa – is a huge Saylor fan. ABC is modelled on Saylor’s Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) which embarked on an aggressive bitcoin reserve strategy more than five years ago. Today it holds more than 630,000 BTC currently valued at about $70 billion. Strategy shareholders have enjoyed the ride of their lives, benefitting from a 2,200% increase in share value in a little over five years. Strategy today is seen as a proxy for investors seeking leveraged exposure to BTC.

Stafford Masie – the Michael Saylor of South Africa

“What I'm really excited about is that we're bringing to market Africa's first Bitcoin treasury company,” says Masie. “The intention is to aggregate and increment our Bitcoin treasury. We're not just raising capital and running off to go and buy Bitcoin. What we will be doing, in a very structured cadenced manner, is incrementing that strategic reserve relative to our NAV (net asset value).”

Masie says the initial response to the fund raising announcement has been huge. The first phase involves the relatively modest fund raising target of R11 million ($625,000) which will be used to acquire BTC.

Altvest became the first company on the JSE when it announced earlier this year that it had added one BTC to its balance sheet. Now it’s going all-in with a name change and mission overhaul. The initial funds will be raised through the issue of one million new shares at R11 each.

Warren Wheatley, CEO of Altvest Capital

Wheatley says the aim is to democratise bitcoin in Africa by making shares available to ordinary South Africans, particularly those under-serviced by the banks and traditional financial firms.

“Our core purpose would be to build up a balance sheet that is galvanized with Bitcoin. That's going to allow us to grow our core business, which is to create wealth for individuals. And that purpose is whether it's through funding your business or making alternative investment opportunities available to you. So in the same way a bank or an insurance company props up their balance sheet with government bonds, gold and oil reserves, we want to do the same thing but with the hardest asset known to man and that will ever exist, which is Bitcoin.”

How to acquire Altvest shares

Africa Bitcoin Company has big plans – it will ultimately list in London, the US, Namibia, Botswana and Kenya. Altvest shares currently trade under the code ALV on both the JSE (AltX) and the A2X exchange in South Africa. Investors can buy or sell ALV shares through any licensed stockbroker or online trading platform that offers access to these exchanges — including EasyEquities, FNB Online, Standard Bank Online and most major South African banks.

In addition to raising equity to fund BTC purchases, Wheatley says the longer-term plan will emulate Michael Saylor’s example at Strategy by using innovative debt instruments to further accumulate bitcoin, offering stock holders leveraged exposure to what is now recognised as the best asset class of the last decade.

ABC’s Bitcoin Treasury initiative poised for strong success

The ABC bitcoin treasury project stands a good chance of succeeding, in part because South Africa already has a strong crypto following with more than 10% of adults reported to have some form of crypto exposure. The South African rand has lost nearly 40% of its value against the U.S. dollar over the last decade, so South Africans are all too aware of the dangers of storing wealth in a sinking currency. In contrast, BTC has appreciated 49,265% against the ZAR over the last decade.

Like Michael Saylor’s Strategy, there are risks – Bitcoin is volatile and investors will have to trust the leadership of Masie and Wheatley (though both come with a respectable track record in the tech and finance space). The proof of reserves will be provided by SilverSixpence, headed by another crypto stalwart, Carel de Jager, well-known for developing blockchain tools for forensic investigations.

Conclusion

Altvest is a relative newcomer to the stock exchange, but has made some astute investments in its short history, including investments in a luxury bush villa in South Africa, a family-run eatery chain called Bambanani Family and a R500 million ($28.4 million) private credit fund.

Just has Strategy’s core data analytics business has been subsumed by its massive bet on BTC, so ABC expects its new direction will pay off handsomely for shareholders eager to preserve wealth over the long term.

FAQs

What is a Bitcoin treasury reserve?

A Bitcoin treasury is a strategy where companies hold Bitcoin as a reserve asset on their balance sheet instead of traditional cash or bonds.

What are the pros and cons of the Bitcoin reserve?

Proponents of a strategic bitcoin reserve see it as a hedge against inflation and monetary instability, much like gold has historically been. Critics cite challenges of liquidity and of acquiring large volumes of bitcoin, along with the broader question of global currency dynamics.

What is the strategy of the Bitcoin treasury?

Sixty-one publicly-listed companies not primarily engaged in digital assets have adopted what are known as bitcoin treasury strategies, in which firms allocate a portion of their cash and reserves toward the world's largest cryptocurrency, according to a report from Standard Chartered.

What are some Bitcoin treasury companies?

They include companies like Strategy, Metaplanet, Marathon Digital Holdings, Twenty-One, Riot Platforms, Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company and Trump Media & Technology Group.

Did you like the article?

Editors' Top Picks and Insights

13 hours ago Mikhail Vnuchkov

Bitcoin price prediction based on MVRV: Indicator points to BTC undervaluation

#Prediction #Bitcoin

1 day ago Eugene Komchuk

Amazon flooded with AI books: Crisis of trust in literature market

#AI #Amazon

3 days ago Pavlo Kot

From stablecoins to the metaverse: Meta's biggest bets that failed

#Prediction Markets #META

4 days ago Johnathan Maverick

Gold and silver: Why to buy in July

#Gold #Silver

4 days ago Anastasiia Chabaniuk

AI push hits Apple: MacBook and iPad prices rise as shares fall

#Micron Technology #AI #Apple

5 days ago Pavlo Kot

Where World Cup 2026 stars invest: Football clubs, technology and crypto

#Crypto #Investing

All news

Team that worked on the article

Ciaran Ryan is a veteran financial journalist based in South Africa, where he covers cryptocurrency, mining, stock markets, and governance for Moneyweb. He also hosts the weekly Moneyweb Crypto Podcast.

Learn about our editorial policies

Dan Blystone began his trading career in 1998 as an arbitrage clerk on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). He later traded bond and Eurex futures at proprietary firms such as Altea Trading, gaining valuable experience in high-frequency trading and risk management.

Chinmay Soni is a financial analyst with more than 5 years of experience in working with stocks, Forex, derivatives, and other assets. As a founder of a boutique research firm and an active researcher, he covers various industries and fields, providing insights backed by statistical data.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital cryptocurrency that was created in 2009 by an anonymous individual or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. It operates on a technology called blockchain, which is a distributed ledger that records all transactions across a network of computers.

Investor

An investor is an individual, who invests money in an asset with the expectation that its value would appreciate in the future. The asset can be anything, including a bond, debenture, mutual fund, equity, gold, silver, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and real-estate property.

Risk Management

Risk management is a risk management model that involves controlling potential losses while maximizing profits. The main risk management tools are stop loss, take profit, calculation of position volume taking into account leverage and pip value.

Leverage

Forex leverage is a tool enabling traders to control larger positions with a relatively small amount of capital, amplifying potential profits and losses based on the chosen leverage ratio.

CFD

CFD is a contract between an investor/trader and seller that demonstrates that the trader will need to pay the price difference between the current value of the asset and its value at the time of contract to the seller.

Top 5 companies for you