GD Culture Eyes Bitcoin Sales to Fuel $100M Buyback as Stock Rebounds

GD Culture is preparing to use its Bitcoin war chest as a capital markets tool. The AI and livestreaming company secured board authorization to liquidate a portion of its 7,500 BTC—roughly $518 million at current prices—to finance a share repurchase program of up to $100 million over the next six months. The stock initially climbed about 15% on the update and later traded up roughly 21% around $4.04, though it’s still down more than 10% over the past month and sits about 60% below its 52‑week peak.

Here’s the fulcrum: management is testing whether equity reflexivity is worth more, near-term, than pure Bitcoin optionality. The board authorized BTC sales “as needed,” in one or multiple trades, with no quota to sell a specific amount. The plan can be adjusted or halted at any time. In other words, GDC kept maximum flexibility to time execution and scale.

The math is straightforward but strategic. GDC’s BTC holdings are around five times the size of the buyback authorization. Selling roughly $100 million of BTC—call it ~1,400–1,500 coins at today’s levels—could retire a meaningful slug of shares without materially depleting the treasury. If the stock trades at a discount to the company’s net assets, buybacks can be accretive on a per‑share basis and tighten that discount. That is classic holding‑company arbitrage applied to a crypto‑heavy balance sheet.

There are trade-offs. Converting BTC into equity support sacrifices a slice of upside convexity if Bitcoin rallies sharply during the program. Execution quality also matters: pacing sales through OTC counterparts, aligning repurchases with liquidity windows, and disclosing a clear framework for when buybacks make sense can shape investor confidence. Taxes on realized BTC gains and governance around threshold levels for sales are not trivial details.

Context helps. GD Culture acquired the 7,500 BTC last September via a share agreement to buy Pallas Capital and its assets, so this is not a reversal of a long‑standing accumulation strategy so much as monetizing an inherited reserve. The company is also not alone in using crypto treasuries as corporate funding rails: - ETHZilla moved about $40 million in ETH in October to support buybacks when its shares slipped below net asset value. - Riot Platforms sold $200 million in BTC across November and December, which analysts widely view as funding for AI initiatives. - Earlier this month, publicly listed miner Cango sold $305 million worth of Bitcoin to back other efforts.

Investors are increasingly comfortable with this repertoire: crypto on balance sheet is not just a bet; it’s working capital, signaling capital, and, when used well, a lever to compress discounts and stabilize the float. The nuance is timing. If GDC emphasizes opportunistic repurchases only when the equity trades below demonstrable asset value, while keeping the majority of BTC intact, the market may reward the discipline. If sales appear ad hoc, or if communication is thin, traders often price in execution risk and policy drift.

For now, GDC has optionality on both sides: ample Bitcoin to preserve upside and a six‑month window to shrink its share count. Whether that mix supports a sustained re‑rating will come down to how precisely management sequences BTC sales against repurchase activity and how transparently it articulates the thresholds that govern both. A company representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.