Capital B Secures €7.6 Million Bitcoin Investment from Adam Back
Paris-based Capital B, a publicly listed company on the pan-European growth market, announced that Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, has subscribed to a private placement totaling €7.645 million (approximately $8.8 million) gross, with a net amount of about €7.3 million, to purchase up to 376 additional bitcoins.
The company issued 13,181,030 shares at €0.58 each, each accompanied by four five-year warrants: two with an exercise price of €0.75, one at €0.98, and one at €1.27. The issue price represents a 15.4% premium over the closing price on September 1. If all warrants are exercised, an additional €49.4 million could be raised, resulting in the issuance of 52.72 million shares, increasing Back's common stock ownership from approximately 14.8% to 27.8%. If the average stock price exceeds the exercise price by 130% for 20 consecutive days, accelerated exercise may be enforced.
Capital B currently holds 3,145 bitcoins, with a total acquisition cost of €284.2 million, averaging €90,352 per bitcoin; the current value of the holdings is approximately €214 million, reflecting an unrealized loss of about €70 million. After the proposed increase, the holdings would be approximately 3,521 bitcoins, valued at about $269.5 million at that time, making it the second-largest bitcoin treasury among European publicly listed companies, following Germany's Bitcoin Group SE, which holds 3,605 bitcoins. A 10-for-1 stock consolidation will take place on September 8, with the warrant exercise ratio adjusted accordingly.
This arrangement is consistent with the €21 million private placement announced on August 28, which included institutions like TOBAM, issuing 36,219,000 shares with a net amount of approximately €19.9 million, allowing for the purchase of an estimated 270 bitcoins. If all warrants from this round are exercised, approximately 144.9 million shares will be issued, raising €135.8 million, theoretically diluting a 1% shareholder to 0.65%. Back has reportedly purchased over 25 million shares in the past two weeks. Maxim Group is acting as the placement agent.
The company, formerly known as The Blockchain Group, plans to launch a bitcoin treasury strategy in November 2024, targeting 15,000 bitcoins by the end of 2027 and 210,000 bitcoins by 2033, which would represent about 1% of the total supply. Back, who introduced Hashcash, which was referenced in the Bitcoin white paper, has previously invested in the company multiple times, including approximately €2.2 million in 2025 and €1.1 million in warrants in May 2026. Blockstream Capital Partners remains a separate major shareholder.
In market mechanics, buyers aim to exchange euro equity for bitcoin exposure through crypto fundamentalism, while sellers are publicly listed companies using premium share issuance and tiered warrants to exchange for bitcoin. The driving force is the treasury competition rather than operational cash flow: equity financing to buy bitcoin, followed by locking in further purchases with warrants. Funds flow from stock subscription accounts into spot bitcoin, making the number of bitcoins per share a performance metric. Beneficiaries include strategic shareholders who gain cheap bullish leverage and the market selling bitcoin to the treasury, while pressured parties include existing shareholders who do not wish to participate and face dilution, as well as those whose average cost exceeds the market price.
Source: Public Information
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After Adam Back incorporated Hashcash into the proof-of-work lineage, he founded Blockstream to develop sidechains and mining infrastructure, and subsequently invested in European shell companies' bitcoin treasury stocks both personally and through funds. Capital B, originally named The Blockchain Group, focused on data and consulting, and will rebrand in 2024 as "Europe's first bitcoin treasury," directly mirroring MicroStrategy's BTC Yield: assessing whether the number of bitcoins per share increases after full dilution. This is not a new industry; it transforms existing public shells into euro-denominated bitcoin leverage certificates. Back's gradual entry from small investments in 2025 to continuous underwriting in 2026 is a way to inscribe his personal brand into the shareholder roster.
The flow of money follows a fixed template: €0.58 per share plus four tiered warrants, initially securing €7.6 million to buy 376 bitcoins, with warrants unlocking an additional €49.4 million of potential capital; last month, a €21 million round sold the same structure to TOBAM. The motivation is to continue diluting costs while the bitcoin price remains below the company's average of €90,352, maintaining the "second in Europe" ranking, and concentrating shares in the hands of those willing to lock in bullish positions for five years before the consolidation. Strategically, Europe lacks a continuous issuer that can benchmark against Strategy; whoever can consistently issue at a premium can pump euro savings into BTC.
Comparable entities include Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), Japan's Metaplanet, and Germany's Bitcoin Group SE. The latter two are compared by the number of bitcoins held, while the former is assessed on whether its financing machine can still operate at a discount. Capital B is in a precarious expansion phase: its holdings are already approximately 25% underwater relative to cost, yet it continues to sell shares at a 15.4% premium, indicating that buyers are purchasing Back's signature and the convexity of the warrants, rather than the current net asset value.
This represents capital concentration. Fiat currency scattered across small public shells in Europe is bundled into bitcoin at a few addresses through warrants. The mechanism at play is that institutions unable to buy or inconveniently positioned in the spot market indirectly relinquish fixed supply assets through dilutable equity; the issuer substitutes "bitcoins per share" for profit statements. Once concentration is achieved, pricing power shifts from miners and spot exchanges to the treasury board capable of repeated issuance—they decide how many euros to use to acquire bitcoin from the market next.
ABAB News · Law of Cognition
The treasury company sells leverage, not profits.
Sustained premium issuance is what constitutes a reserve strategy.
Signature pricing precedes net asset pricing.