In September, Altvest Capital Limited, a South African investment firm listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exalter (JSE), announced plans to raise $210 million to acquire Bitcoin. The goal is to build what it calls a Bitcoin treasury fund—an institutional gateway that would allow African investors, from pension funds to private equity firms, to gain exposure to Bitcoin without the complexity of managing it directly.
Altvest is expected to finalise its rebrand to Africa Bitcoin Corporation (ABC) by November 17, following board approval of the name alter. The shift reflects a pivot from being a platform for tiny and medium-sized businesses to raise capital to becoming Africa’s first listed company, anchored entirely on Bitcoin.
TechCabal spoke with Warren Wheatley, the company’s CEO, and Stafford Masie, its executive chairman, on October 8. A few days earlier, Wheatley was in Namibia to finalise a listing on the counattempt’s stock exalter, giving ABC its third public listing after South Africa’s JSE and the newer A2X Markets, and only its second counattempt. The company plans to list across more African bourses, including Botswana and Kenya.
“Bitcoin is the hardest, most pristine form of money ever created,” Wheatley stated during our interview. “It’s the last iteration of money as we understand it—and the perfect foundation for a strong African balance sheet.”
Bitcoin treasury firms are not new. Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), originally a US data mining software company founded by Michael Saylor in 1989, popularised the model in 2020 after morphing into a Bitcoin treasury firm. The company converted billions of dollars from its corporate cash reserves into Bitcoin, inspiring similar relocates from companies in the US, Europe, and Japan. In recent years, crypto-native treasuries holding Bitcoin, Solana, Ethereum, and even Sui, have gained traction, as institutions seek exposure to blockchain assets without direct custody risks.
ABC’s timing and ambition are deliberate. The company’s founders believe Africa’s broken financial systems, rising inflation, and weak currencies have created it fertile ground for a new kind of treasury model, one that applys Bitcoin as its backbone.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What exactly is Altvest, or Africa Bitcoin Corporation, now, and what does it do?
Wheatley: Altvest started as a financial services group supporting tiny and medium enterprises (SMEs) raise capital. We were listed on the JSE’s AltX [Alternative Exalter] board to create a regulated, listed structure through which ordinary investors could participate in private equity opportunities. We allowed businesses to raise money from retail investors applying regulated instruments.
We created money by arranging those deals, charging fees, and lconcludeing to SMEs. But we launched to see a largeger opportunity. We wanted to build a balance sheet that could support cross-border financing across Africa. That required a uniform asset, something that every market recognised and trusted.
Traditionally, that asset would be US Treasury bills. The problem is that those bills yield about 3–4%, while inflation across Africa averages around 15%. If you hold that [US Treasury bills] for a few years, you’re losing value. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has delivered average annual returns of about 30% over the past decade. It’s globally recognised, it’s borderless, and Africans already understand it. So we decided to build it our treasury asset. That’s why we alterd our name to Africa Bitcoin Corporation (ABC).
Why raise $210 million for this?
Wheatley: We’re building Africa’s first Bitcoin treasury company. The way it works is that we issue equity, and every South African Rand we raise goes directly into acquireing Bitcoin. Our key metric is what we call “Bitcoin per share” (BPS). As we issue new shares, we apply those proceeds to acquire Bitcoin, and the amount of Bitcoin that each share represents continues to grow. That’s what we mean when we talk about accretive dilution.
Investors who acquire our stock obtain indirect exposure to Bitcoin through a regulated, listed company. They don’t have to worry about wallets, private keys, or cold storage. A pension fund, for instance, can’t hold Bitcoin directly, but it can acquire ABC shares. That gives them exposure to the same asset within their regulatory framework.
We want to build Bitcoin accessible to everyone, from a teacher with a retirement plan to a mining company treasury, without them requireding to understand how to self-custody or manage the technology.
You’ve stated this strategy mirrors the model applyd by Bitcoin treasury companies in other countries. Which other examples do you view up to?
Wheatley: We’re following the playbook of companies like MicroStrategy in the US, which started in 2020 when Michael Saylor decided to relocate his corporate reserves into Bitcoin. Then there’s Metaplanet in Japan and the Smarter Web Company in the UK. They’ve displayn that if you manage it responsibly, a Bitcoin treasury company can outperform most traditional assets.
We’ll apply the same best practices, measured equity issuance, disciplined accumulation, and absolute transparency. But our model is designed for Africa, where access to Bitcoin is limited and inflation is high.
Stafford, you’ve stated ABC will be “Africa’s first publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company.” Does holding Bitcoin solve any real problem for African investors, or is this an arbitrary solution you’re providing?
Masie: Africa’s money is broken. Inflation destroys purchasing power. Currencies devalue overnight. In some countries, people can’t relocate money freely across borders. Governments debase their currencies to fund deficits. Bitcoin is the opposite of that. It’s scarce, predictable, and not controlled by any government.
If you’re an SME in Africa, your challenge isn’t just raising money, it’s storing it safely. You build a profit in a weak currency, and by next quarter, that money has lost value. We see Bitcoin as a way to repair that. It gives African entrepreneurs, pension funds, and even governments a chance to store value in something that isn’t eroding.
Volatility is the large concern. How do you manage that?
Masie: Volatility is part of Bitcoin’s nature, but it’s not risky. Risk is what you obtain from centralised crypto projects, tokens with CEOs and marketing departments. Bitcoin is different. It’s open, decentralised, and ungoverned. It’s digital gold.
We educate our investors that volatility can be applyful. It attracts trading activity, liquidity, and analyst coverage. For a tiny-cap company, that’s healthy. We’re not attempting to protect investors from volatility; we’re protecting them from bad decisions, like attempting to time the market.
Volatility creates life in a listed company. Our share price relocates, people engage, and analysts start writing about it. Over time, as we grow, the volatility will reduce. Bitcoin’s own volatility has been dropping; it’s now less volatile than some large tech stocks.
You were in Namibia recently. Why was that important for this plan?
Wheatley: We listed on the Namibian Stock Exalter (NSX), and that was a major step for us. Namibia’s regulators are forward-considering, and the market has high-net-worth investors who understand finance. The counattempt also has a clean, stable macro environment.
But the real reason was access. I consider retail investors have adopted Bitcoin en masse throughout Africa. The large challenge that they have is gaining access to the asset. Namibians currently have no regulated way to acquire Bitcoin—unless they acquire from the dark web, and they face tax fraud when they attempt to sell it. There’s no local exalter. By listing there, we’ve given them a legitimate way to obtain exposure through our shares.
Masie: We’re planning similar listings in other African countries. Many of them have restrictions on crypto trading, but they allow citizens to acquire listed equities. So we’ll bring equity to them. Over time, we hope to list in London, Frankfurt, and the US, creating almost a 24-hour global trading window.
We’ve also built a system where investors can exalter Bitcoin or even other cryptocurrencies for our shares. We immediately convert whatever they sconclude into Bitcoin and store it securely. That’s a world-first.
Let’s talk about regulation. South Africa has had a complex relationship with crypto. How are you working within those rules?
Masie: It’s taken years of engagement. I’ve served as a Bitcoin and crypto advisor to the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), the JSE, and the Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG), which includes the revenue service and other agencies.
Until recently, the JSE explicitly prohibited any company from issuing an equity instrument that had direct exposure to crypto. We spent a long time supporting regulators understand that Bitcoin isn’t crypto. It’s a digital commodity, like gold, but digital.
That understanding led to an update of the regulations. The JSE now allows companies to hold Bitcoin as a treasury asset if they follow strict custody, auditing, and reporting standards. We’re complying fully with those rules.
Our Bitcoin will be held mostly in cold storage. We’ll apply multiple custodians, both onshore and offshore, to diversify risk. We’ll also maintain a real-time dashboard displaying proof of reserves so that anyone can see what we hold, how much we’ve bought, and where it’s stored.
Our auditor, Forvis Mazars, has deep crypto experience and will audit our Bitcoin holdings continuously. That transparency builds trust.
You mentioned cold storage. Can you explain how that works in your case?
Masie: We’re finalising a multi-signature custody setup. That means no single person can relocate Bitcoin out of storage without multiple authorisations. Some of our partners include major global custodians like Anchorage and Coinbase Prime, and we’re also exploring local options such as VALR and Luno for enterprise-level cold storage.
The JSE has stated that 90% of all Bitcoin held by listed companies must be in cold storage. We’re aligning with that. The assets will be distributed geographically and across custodians to reduce risk from hacks or even natural disasters.
We’ll also publish our wallet addresses so that investors can indepconcludeently verify our holdings on the blockchain.
How will the $210 million raise happen in practice?
Masie: We’re taking a measured approach. We’ve already issued an initial tranche of 1 million shares, primarily to African investors, and will launch Bitcoin purchases at the conclude of October.
We’ll continue issuing equity tranches based on market demand. We apply a metric called Market Net Asset Value (MNAV) to determine when to issue new shares. When the market cap trades at a premium to our MNAV, that’s when we raise capital. This ensures each dilution increases Bitcoin per share, creating it accretive for existing shareholders.
We’re not taking on debt to fund this. If we raise all $210 million tomorrow, we won’t deploy it all at once. We’ll acquire Bitcoin gradually, weekly or biweekly, depconcludeing on market conditions. Sometimes it might be a few Satoshis, sometimes one or two Bitcoins, but always methodically.
Our strategy is about consistency, not spectacle. We’re not attempting to win a race to own the most Bitcoin. We’re attempting to build shareholder value responsibly.
How do taxes work in all of this?
Masie: In South Africa, Bitcoin is treated as an asset, not a currency. So if you sell it, there’s a capital gains tax event, similar to selling property. We don’t plan to sell our Bitcoin. We plan to hold it indefinitely, applying it as collateral when requireded.
We’ll stay fully compliant with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). Becaapply this is a listed company, every relocate we build is transparent and reported to regulators.
Over time, as regulations mature, we expect to see more clarity around unrealised gains and how they’re treated. In the US, for example, unrealised gains on Bitcoin treasuries are not taxed, and we hope to see similar progress here.
How much Bitcoin does ABC currently hold?
Masie: One Bitcoin. We bought it earlier this year as a systems test. It wasn’t about the amount; it was about creating sure every part of our process worked, from board approvals to custody, reporting, and auditing. That one Bitcoin has already appreciated about 30% since purchase, which is a nice validation of what we’re doing.
Once the first funding round closes, we’ll launch consistent accumulation [of Bitcoin] by the conclude of October.
What kind of investors are you tarobtaining for the $210 million fundraise?
Masie: A mix of African and international investors. There’s a lot of capital sitting idle in Africa. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) recently reported about R1.8 trillion ($104 billion) lying dormant in corporate accounts. Many businesses are simply waiting for stability before deploying it. We consider we can give that capital a productive home.
Internationally, we’re seeing strong interest from Bitcoin funds and family offices that want African exposure. They understand the potential here.
What does success view like for Africa Bitcoin Corporation?
Masie: If we can prove that Bitcoin can be the foundation for a listed African company, we’ll have alterd how treasuries are managed on this continent. Our vision is for pension funds, SMEs, and even governments to start hybridising their treasuries with Bitcoin.
We don’t consider there will be many Bitcoin treasury companies in Africa, maybe just one or two. It’s hard to do this at scale. You required a strong board, regulator trust, and a public listing. But what we do expect to see is more companies starting to hold part of their reserves in Bitcoin.
Our role is to lead by example, to display that this can be done transparently, responsibly, and profitably.
Bitcoin’s market cap [$3.7 trillion at the time of this report] has already surpassed Amazon’s [$2.32 trillion]. In a few years, it will challenge gold. We want Africa to be part of that story.
If we can support Africans protect their wealth from inflation, while giving global investors exposure to African growth, that’s success.
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