Shareholders of the healthcare services provider KindlyMD, Inc have approved a proposed merger with Bitcoin holding company Nakamoto Holdings, founded by US President Donald Trump’s crypto adviser, David Bailey.

KindlyMD and Nakamoto Holdings, a newly formed company that focuses on creating a network of Bitcoin-related entities, will both file information statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission, KindlyMD said in a May 20 statement.

The merger is expected to take place 20 days after both companies have shared the information statement with KindlyMD’s shareholders, with the transaction expected to be finalized in the third quarter of 2025.

Google Finance shows shares in KindlyMD (KDLY) closed the May 20 trading session up 9% at $15.22 and gained another 4.8% after the bell as the announcement of the approved merger came after the trading session ended. KDLY is up over 979% so far this year.

Shares of KindlyMD were up 4.8% after-hours on news that shareholders approved a merger with Nakamoto Holdings. Source: Google Finance.

The companies first announced the merger on May 12, saying the merged entity will use equity, debt, and other offerings to develop a slew of Bitcoin-native companies. Additionally, the company will also bolster its treasury by accumulating Bitcoin (BTC).

Companies continue to increase their Bitcoin holdings

A growing number of public companies have been adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets and have outpaced retail investors and exchange-traded funds, according to Bitcoin investment firm River.

Vivek Ramaswamy’s Strive said on May 20 that it intends to purchase Bitcoin claims tied to the defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox and would look to buy 75,000 BTC at a discounted price.

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Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, said on May 19 that it purchased 7,390 BTC for $765 million last week. The company’s top brass were also hit with a class-action lawsuit alleging they had failed to accurately represent the nature of the company’s Bitcoin investments.

Earlier this month, stablecoin issuer Tether bought nearly $459 million worth of Bitcoin for Twenty One Capital, a Bitcoin investment firm it backed that is awaiting the completion of a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) merger with Cantor Equity Partners.

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission has delayed its decision on Bitwise’s application to add staking to its Ether exchange-traded fund and on Grayscale’s XRP ETF bid, which analysts had expected.

The SEC said on May 20 that it needed to extend its decision on Bitwise’s application by 45 days to “consider the proposed rule change and the issues raised therein.” The agency needed to either decide or punt its decision by May 22.

The agency also delayed deciding on Grayscale’s XRP (XRP) tracking ETF and Bitwise’s Solana (SOL) tracking fund while it seeks public comments and begins “proceedings to allow for additional analysis” of the proposals to ensure they meet regulatory standards.

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said on X that both delays were expected as the SEC “typically takes the full time to respond to a 19b-4 filing.”

“Almost all of these filings have final due dates in October,” and an early decision would be “out of the norm,” Seyffart added. 

“No matter how Crypto-friendly this SEC is. There’s no conspiracy here,” he said.

Source: James Seyffart

Seyffart said delays on other spot crypto ETF bids are also expected, and the SEC is likely to delay deciding on Litecoin (LTC) ETFs too.

However, he added, “Litecoin is one that has a higher likelihood vs others of getting approved first.”

“A bunch of XRP ETPs have dates in [the] next few days. If we’re gonna see early approvals from the SEC on any of these assets, I wouldn’t expect to see them until late June or early July at the absolute earliest. More likely to be in early 4Q,” Seyffart added.

SEC dealing with flood of ETF filings 

Several other crypto ETF applications are approaching SEC deadlines in June. The SEC is supposed to decide on Grayscale’s Polkadot (DOT) tracking ETF by June 11 and 21Shares’ Polkadot ETF on June 24, according to an SEC filing.

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The SEC received a raft of altcoin ETF filings in the wake of Donald Trump’s election in November and the following resignation of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler.

The industry saw Gensler’s time at the SEC as an era marked by an aggressive regulatory stance toward crypto, with 100 crypto-related regulatory actions during his tenure from 2021 until his resignation on Jan. 20.

With Genlser’s departure, the SEC is perceived as far more crypto-friendly, with several firms facing legal action from the regulator having had their cases dismissed, including crypto exchange Gemini on Feb. 26 and crypto trading firm Cumberland DRW on March 4.

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Blackstone, which bills itself as the “the world’s largest alternative asset manager,” disclosed its first-ever crypto-related purchase, buying shares in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

However, Blackstone’s investment, reported in a May 20 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, only totaled around $1.08 million — a fraction of the asset manager’s $1.2 trillion portfolio.

Blackstone reported holding 23,094 shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) as of March 31.

The IBIT shares were added to Blackstone’s Alternative Multi-Strategy Fund (BTMIX), which holds $2.63 billion worth of assets, Google Finance data shows.

The filing shows Blackstone also bought 4,300 shares in crypto ATM operator Bitcoin Depot Inc. (BTM) for a total cost of $6,300 and spent $181,166 scooping up 9,889 shares of the ProShares Bitcoin ETF (BITO).

Despite its claim as an “alternative asset manager,” Blackstone has largely stayed away from crypto. In September 2019, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman said he liked the concept of blockchain but thought its use for money was “pretty odd.”

“[I was] raised in a world where someone needs to control currencies,” he said at the time.

He admitted he didn’t have much interest in crypto, citing difficulties understanding the technology.

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Blackstone invests in everything from private equity, real estate and credit to infrastructure, hedge funds and insurance solutions.

According to Blackstone’s website, it had $37 billion worth of investable capital as of March 31.

Meanwhile, the state of Wisconsin Investment Board — one of the first state investment funds to provide Bitcoin exposure to US retirees — reported on May 15 that it liquidated all 6,060,351 of its IBIT shares worth $3.7 billion during the first quarter.

Flows keep coming in for BlackRock’s IBIT

BlackRock’s Bitcoin fund has not recorded an outflow in six weeks, since April 9, Farside Investors data shows.

It has seen a 20-trading-day streak of inflows during that time, bringing its total net inflows to over $46.1 billion since it launched in January 2024.

The Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARK) trail IBIT in all-time net inflows at $11.8 billion and $2.8 billion, respectively.

Flow data of the 11 US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs since May 2. Source: Farside Investors

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