Semler Scientific (SMLR) disclosed the purchase of 581 bitcoins (BTC) for its treasury, sending its stock price higher by 25% in early U.S. trading hours Tuesday.
The sub-$200 million market cap (prior to this morning’s price rise) company held cash and cash equivalents of $62.9 million as of the end of the first quarter, according to its most recent earnings statement. It had first quarter revenue of $15.9 million and operating cash flow of $6.1. million.
According to this morning’s press release, Semler purchased 581 bitcoins for for $40 million, suggesting an average price of about $68,850 per token.
“Bitcoin is now a major asset class with more than $1 trillion of market value,” said company Chairman Eric Semler. “We believe it has unique characteristics as a scarce and finite asset that can serve as a reasonable inflation hedge and safe haven amid global instability. We also believe its digital, architectural resilience makes it preferable to gold, which has a market value of approximately 10 times that of bitcoin.”
Today’s 25% gain has brought the stock to just a 2% decline on a year-over-year basis.
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Stephen Alpher is CoinDesk’s managing editor for Markets. He holds BTC above CoinDesk’s disclosure threshold of $1,000.
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