What happened
Shares of Bit Digital (BTBT 1.51%) flew higher today, likely because the price of Bitcoin (BTC 0.63%) has risen sharply in recent days. When Bitcoin goes up, trading volume on Bit Digital and other cryptocurrency miners tends to rise, leading to outsize gains. Bit Digital stock finished almost 11% higher for the day.
So what
Bit Digital is a company that mines Bitcoin. And it's invested significant resources of late to increase how much Bitcoin it's able to mine. For perspective, it said it mined almost 425 Bitcoin shares in January alone. The company sells these as needed to generate revenue. But it holds them as well (it had 488.5 as of March 2).
Image source: Getty Images.
As of this writing, Bit Digital's Bitcoin assets are valued at over $27.4 million. But Bitcoin is up 3% over the past 24 hours. Therefore, not only does this increase the value of Bit Digital's balance sheet by hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it also increases the company's potential revenue when it sells any Bitcoin. That's why the stock typically spikes on days like today.
Now what
Investors should keep in mind that there could be near-term selling pressure on this stock. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today, Bit Digital made prior financial arrangements with venture capital firm Ionic Ventures to fund growth. As a result of those agreements, Ionic is now being issued shares. The company will issue Ionic over 6 million shares in the transaction.
Ionic Ventures will be free to sell them on the open market. Consider that with just 48 million total shares, Ionic will own roughly 13% of the company when all its shares have been issued. It certainly could hold on to this cryptocurrency stock for the long haul, but it does present an unknown for shareholders.
