The Bitcoin Bull: How K33 is building a massive Bitcoin treasury company
So you think you're bullish? Today's interviewee's middle name is Bull.
Torbjørn Bull Jensen is building the Nordic crypto exchange K33, listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market with the ticker K33.
A month ago the company announced they would start start raising capital, buying Bitcoin and using it to support their brokerage operations.
Since then the company's share price has tripled.
But it seems they are just getting started.
Update: Just hours after this interview, K33 announced the launch of a share issue to finance the purchase of up to 1,000 Bitcoin, with a minimum of SEK 85 million secured through pre-commitments.
Torbjørn, you've been a Bitcoiner longer than most, even writing your Master's thesis on it in 2013. Can you tell us about your journey to Bitcoin?
I was deeply fascinated with the question, “What is Money?” while studying economics when I came across Bitcoin. Bitcoin contradicts both of the main schools of thought on the topic, so I figured it was the perfect case for a Master's thesis.
Through the work of my masters, I came across “Shelling out - the origins of money” by Nick Zabo and “Money is memory” which made me adopt a game theoretic approach that has formed the basis for my conviction in Bitcoin since.
In addition, what caught my attention was the revolutionary fact that Bitcoin was the first digital bearer asset, without any counterparty risk, in human history.
This, combined with permissionless access and censorship resistance, is extremely powerful, making Bitcoin a natural contender for the Dollar as a world reserve currency.
What is K33, what do you do and why should investors consider it for their portfolio?
We are a research-led digital assets broker and a Bitcoin treasury company. We enable clients to buy, sell and store Bitcoin and other digital assets without worry.
We work with larger private clients (HNWI and Family Offices), corporate clients, including other Bitcoin treasury companies, and financial institutions.
We are perfectly positioned to benefit from future Bitcoin appreciation and general maturation of the sector. Banks and other financial institutions are entering the space, and K33 shall be a preferred partner in the Nordics and beyond.
Since the launch of the K33-platform in Q3 2023, we have had 6 quarters of strong growth and continue to outgrow the market. With a strong balance sheet built in BTC, we will be able to improve our margins, expand our product offering and secure larger partnerships without taking risk on the Bitcoin exposure.
Can you share your current BTC metrics?
We have raised around USD 6m from our key shareholders to launch our Bitcoin treasury strategy, and we have bought the first 20 BTC, with more to follow. My goal is to raise capital to buy 1,000 BTC and then scale from there.
We are currently preparing to execute this in the best and fastest way possible, maximizing the value for our shareholders.
Are there benefits or drawbacks to being a small company in the Nordic market?
Operating in the Nordic market gives us a lot of legitimacy due to stable regulation, transparent financial reporting, and generally strong governance structures.
We have always been an international business, with clients from around the world, and being Nordic does not limit us.
In addition, being a small company, for now, enables us to move fast without the bureaucracy of large corporations and grow faster.
What can you share about your long term capital raise plans? You mentioned a 1,000 BTC goal - is there a time frame for that?
The timeline is as fast as practically possible, conditional on landing the right financing structure to maximize the long-term value for our current shareholders. We will keep the market posted on our progress.
Update: Just hours after this interview, K33 announced the launch of a share issue to finance the purchase of up to 1,000 Bitcoin, with a minimum of SEK 85 million secured through pre-commitments.
Before adopting your new treasury strategy you evaluated the other companies executing the same plan. What inspiration and conclusions did you draw from that?
That is right. We are drawing much inspiration from Strategy, Metaplanet, the Blockchain Group and others and learning from what has worked well. We have also looked at less successful initiatives to identify what to avoid.
A big benefit for K33 is that 1) we can learn from the first movers and build from that, and 2) we have strong synergies between our operational business and a strong Bitcoin balance sheet, unlike the other initiatives.
We have been operating in the sector for years, we hold Bitcoin privately and advise our clients to do the same. To us, Bitcoin is an asset and a market we know and believe in, not just the latest trend.
What capital raising mechanisms do you plan on using going forward?
The full toolbox is available to us, and we will update the market as we decide on the best path forward and next step.
You've mentioned how a bigger BTC stack could actually help your operating business, can you explain how this works?
Yes, this is a key differentiator between K33 and other treasury companies. K33 is a broker meaning that our job is to give our clients full market access.
To do that efficiently, we need collateral, enabling us to broker any market, product, or feature from platforms such as Deribit, Binance, Coinbase etc, to our clients.
We will not take risk with the BTC, as we are always fully hedged, offering “matched principal trading”, but the collateral is needed for liquidity efficiency, strong margins and for K33 to be credible as a partner and platform.
In the future, there will be no need to have 5 or 10 different accounts on different exchanges to access the market; with one account on K33, you will be able to access the whole market through us as your preferred broker.
One platform where you do KYC. No fragmentation of your portfolio. Fully regulated under MiCA, with full reserves and superior fiat rails regardless of your preferred fiat currency.
Another area where I anticipate strong growth in the coming years is bitcoin-collateralized lending, where clients can free up liquidity without selling their BTC.
We are in conversations with several banks regarding this and have found a robust model:
- The client deposits BTC as collateral with K33.
- The bank issues a loan to the client.
- K33, as a company with a strong balance, issues a guarantee to the bank for the loan.
This way, we solve the problem that banks cannot deal directly with Bitcoin collateral due to capital requirements and compliance issues. We would only issue guarantees based on overcollateralized loans, such that we don’t take a risk, and we can write the guarantees and distribute the loans based on the strength of our balance sheet. This way, banks can enter the space by partnering with K33, all enabled by our Bitcoin treasury.
Is it likely that we will see continuous buying in the coming months from K33?
Yes, that is the only way to execute on our strategy.
What has been the most challenging part of transitioning into a BTC treasury company? How has it been received by your existing investors?
We have prepared for this for a long time and the transition so far has been smooth. We have all the expertise and infrastructure inouse and are being used by other Bitcoin Treasury companies for execution and custody already. This initiative was launched with full backing of our largest shareholders and the market has really appreciated this initiative.
Have you considered moving to a larger exchange to improve access for global investors?
As we scale, it will be natural to consider an uplisting to ease access to the share globally.
Investors will naturally start comparing all the new treasury companies, how should investors think about K33 vs. the others? Or should we focus on these companies vs tradfi instead?
The Bitcoin standard is a future we build together, and I don’t see different Bitcoin treasury companies as competitors. The competition is for the foundation of the global financial system, and right now, Bitcoin is on a winning track.
I've watched you promote Bitcoin in Norwegian media for many years, and I've always appreciated both your deep knowledge about Bitcoin, but also your capacity to explain its benefits to people that have written it off, or who might not take it seriously.
How does it feel to now be in the center of this Bitcoinization of finance after championing it for so long?
It feels surreal. I feel privileged going to work every day to do something I love and find important, to be able to play as small part in the making of history.
Is there anything you wish you were asked about K33 or your strategy that no one is asking?
Not that I can think of right now. Some people have asked me about my personal plans related to K33, and the answer to that is simple: I’m here to stay and make K33 as successful as possible.
Anything else you would like to share with our audience of Bitcoin treasury company investors?
I just want to take the opportunity to remind everyone, including myself, that while “number go up” is an important part of Bitcoin, the promise of permissionless, open, and censorship-resistant money is what really matters.
In the coming years, we need to be vigilant, to continue to fight for the right to self-custody, push back on surveillance, and other initiatives limiting this future. More Bitcoin on K33’s balance sheet or in the basement of Blackrock is a key part of the journey, but we can’t allow it to become the only part.
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Thank you to Torbjørn and K33. If you want to learn more I also recommend watching this great interview with him by TraderJones:
K33 is based in Norway, and is listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market with the ticker K33. Check with your local broker if you have access to it.