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Peter Schiff has built a career on deriding Bitcoin. The outspoken gold evangelist and fund manager famously scoffed in 2019, “Keep dreaming. Bitcoin is never going to hit $100,000!”1. To Schiff, the world’s largest cryptocurrency has long been nothing but “digital fool’s gold” – a speculative bubble destined to pop, or as he put it in 2023, “still going to zero…just traveling a long road”2. Yet in a twist laced with irony, recent disclosures reveal that Schiff’s own asset management arm quietly gained exposure to a bitcoin-backed bond late last year. In other words, the man who equated bitcoin with tulip mania now finds his firm unwittingly invested in a bond powered by the very asset he loves to hate. The Bitcoin Bond Nobody Expected The instrument in question is a bitcoin treasury bond issued by Samara Asset Group p.l.c., a publicly traded European asset manager (formerly known as Cryptology Asset Group). In November 2024, Samara successfully issued what it calls “Europe’s first-ever Bitcoin Bond,” raising €20 million to expand its portfolio and significantly increase its bitcoin treasury holdings.3 The bond (ISIN: NO0013364398) is structured as a 5-year senior secured note maturing in 2029, offering a substantial 10.062% annual coupon.4 Additionally, the bond includes an innovative incentive: bondholders receive an extra 0.25% premium on principal for every €0.25 increase in Samara’s Net Asset Value (NAV) per share, closely aligning bondholder interests with shareholders. Samara’s CEO Patrick Lowry described the issuance enthusiastically, noting it was “the very first time in history a European firm has taken a page out of the ‘Michael Saylor playbook,’ issuing a bond explicitly with the intent to acquire bitcoin.”5 Indeed, within weeks of the bond issuance, Samara utilized the proceeds to purchase approximately 76 BTC for its treasury and invested in several crypto-focused venture funds.6 The…

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Filed under: News - @ April 22, 2025 2:28 pm