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BTC AB Launches Europe’s First Bitcoin-Backed Preferred Shares

BTC PREF lists on Spotlight Stock Market and ties a 10% dividend to additional Bitcoin purchases. The structure mirrors Strategy’s model in Europe, but demand was limited.

By Luc Vesters
• 2 min read
BTC AB Launches Europe’s First Bitcoin-Backed Preferred Shares

Key Takeaways

  • BTC AB listed Europe’s first Bitcoin-backed preferred shares, BTC PREF, on the Spotlight Stock Market.
  • The shares pay a fixed annual dividend of 10%, paid monthly.
  • About 52% of the issue was placed, and the proceeds will be used to buy more Bitcoin and support the dividend.

BTC AB listed Europe’s first Bitcoin-backed preferred shares on Monday. The shares, called BTC PREF, began trading on the Spotlight Stock Market and carry a fixed annual dividend of 10%, paid out monthly.

The setup is meant to work as a European version of Strategy’s U.S. model, formerly MicroStrategy. Investors in the preferred shares receive income, while BTC AB channels the capital it raises into more Bitcoin. It is a similar playbook to the one Strategy uses to keep adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet, although the results still depend heavily on market conditions.

How BTC PREF Works

BTC AB is a small Stockholm-based company with a straightforward plan: accumulate Bitcoin and hold it. In June, the company announced a rights issue of 195,078 preferred shares priced at SEK 120 each. That translates to SEK 12 a year per share, paid in monthly installments.

If the deal had been fully subscribed, BTC AB could have raised SEK 23.4 million. Instead, only about 52% of the offering was taken up, which brought in roughly SEK 12.2 million. The remaining shares were left unsold.

Market conditions likely didn’t help. The sale ran through the end of June, a period when Bitcoin was falling and Strategy’s own preferred shares also slipped below their $100 (€88) face value.

Europe’s Appetite for Yield

BTC PREF’s debut suggests that Europe is starting to test more products that blend Bitcoin exposure with a fixed payout. For investors who want some upside tied to Bitcoin without holding the asset directly, that kind of structure may be appealing.

Still, Europe’s crypto market remains split across different national rules, and institutional investors have generally been cautious with allocation. That makes new products like this interesting, but also dependent on a market that may prefer to wait and see.

Dependent on Bitcoin Price

BTC AB plans to use the proceeds to buy more Bitcoin and build a cash reserve for dividend payments. The company already holds about 172 BTC, worth around $11 million (€9.6 million) at current prices.

To help support trading from the start, the company has brought in Pareto Securities as a liquidity provider. Whether the structure gains traction over the next few weeks will mostly come down to whether European investors are comfortable with a fixed return that is still indirectly tied to Bitcoin’s price. A prolonged bear market could put that payout under pressure.

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