Bividend: The First Bitcoin Dividend Paid By a NASDAQ-Listed Company
BTCS, a blockchain technology-focused company, announced on Wednesday, Jan. 5 the first-ever dividend payable in Bitcoin by a Nasdaq-listed company, which the company refers to as a Bividend.
A Bividend is a dividend payable to the company’s shareholders of record at their election in Bitcoin or cash. BTCS intends to pay $0.05 per share in Bitcoin, based on the Bitcoin price on the ex-dividend date and investors who do not elect to receive the Bividend in Bitcoin will receive a cash dividend of $0.05, according to the company.
Asked what prompted the decision for this industry first, Charles Allen, BTCS CEO, told GOBankingRates that “we believe in direct ownership of assets which is part of the reason why we feel so strongly about the technology being built in the era of Web 3.0. However, we wanted to take direct digital asset ownership even further by offering the Bividend to our shareholders.”
“That being said, we’ve also been first for many milestones as far as public companies and crypto are concerned. We were the first pure-play U.S. public company focused on crypto and blockchains, the first U.S. public company to mine Bitcoin, and the first U.S. public company to secure next-generation proof-of-stake blockchains like Ethereum, Avalanche and Cardano,” Allen added.
BTCS purchased Bividend.com in 2015 and had been planning to execute on the idea since then, but it wasn’t until this year that it said it had the resources and it became an appropriate corporate action.
“Our board decided on this because we were at a point where we wanted to demonstrate our true value to our shareholders,” Allen said.
“The market was valuing our business less than the value of the balance sheet’s assets. At the end of 2021, our stock closed at $3.14 per share, however, the fair market value of our cash and crypto per share was $3.56. The market gave effectively zero value to our operations, such as the $1.2 million we did in 2021 revenue (unaudited) or the fact that we paid off $2 million of debt in 2021,” Allen said.
“We scratched our heads and said this is ridiculous. The board decided to pay a $0.05 per share dividend, or if you want it in Bitcoin, a Bividend. We wanted to hopefully bring the market to understand and realize that there’s a lot of value to our company. Which is why we also released a revised corporate presentation which better articulates our business plan and value proposition,” he added.
The Bividend will be paid on March 17, to leave time for shareholders to complete the opt-in process by the March 16, opt-in deadline.
BTCS provides security for the top Layer 1 blockchains that serve as the backbone of DeFi, NFTs, and Metaverse ecosystems like Ethereum, Avalanche and Cardano.
The company is also developing a digital asset platform designed to provide users with a one-stop-shop dashboard to consolidate crypto portfolios across multiple exchanges, track cumulative performance, and provide data insights to users, according to the corporate presentation. The platform is slated for 2022.
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