AI firm, Genius Group announced that it will adopt Bitcoin as its primary treasury asset. The company will be holding 90% of its present and future resources in BTC.
According to the recent press release, the shares of GNS have increased up to 50% during the premarket trading before dropping back down. However, the stock price is still 10% more than it was on Monday. Currently, it is trading at $0.70 per share.
The Singapore-based company shared further schemes to buy $120 million worth of bitcoin, making up to 1380 BTC at current rates. The company will hold them for a longer period. Moreover, it will be allowing payments in Bitcoin for the Edtech platform.
This transition of the company towards the deployment of Bitcoin is happening after it hired multiple people with portfolios in the crypto and Web 3 markets.
Bitcoin meets the real world in Singapore
The strategy is the same as Microstrategy led by Micheal Saylor which has $24 billion worth of Bitcoin holdings after it started using crypto assets for protection from inflation.
“We see Bitcoin as being the primary store of value that will power these exponential technologies,” says Thomas Power, a director at Genius Group and a former board member at Team Blockchain. He added that:
“With our Bitcoin-first strategy, we will be among the first NYSE American listed companies to fully embrace MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin strategy.”
Ian Putter, another director at Genius Group and founder of the Blockchain Research Institute Africa, highlighted a unique edge that Genius Group holds in this new Bitcoin journey.
Incorporated in Singapore, the company enjoys 0% capital gains tax, meaning any growth in their Bitcoin holdings comes with no tax penalty. “The Board intends to put our future earnings and capital raising to good use in building a sizeable reserve in Bitcoin,” says Putter.
Essentially, they’re free to grow their Bitcoin stash without worrying about getting hit with capital gains taxes. It’s a golden setup for their Bitcoin-first strategy, letting Genius Group maximize returns without dealing with tax losses.
While they’re ramping up their Bitcoin holdings and education initiatives, Genius Group is also waging a legal battle on another front.
CEO Roger Hamilton revealed they’ve been locked in a two-year fight against market manipulators, a struggle that’s battered the company’s stock price and market cap.
The company’s shares have sunk below $0.60, while the market cap dropped to $12 million, despite the company pulling in $23 million in revenue in 2023 and reporting assets of $43 million.
This plummet is one of the key reasons they’re embracing Bitcoin as a more transparent, decentralized alternative to traditional financial markets.
