500.com raises $23m in Bitcoin and cash via private placement

The placement, agreed in December, will see Good Luck Information receive 85,572,963 newly issued Class A ordinary shares in 500.com.

The Bitcoin part of the transaction is equivalent to $11.5m, based on the Bitcoin to US dollar exchange rate on January 21, 2021, thus valuing the placement at a total of $23.0m.

Based on today’s (23 February) price, the 356.04342 Bitcoins are worth $17.3m.

The placement represents 500.com’s latest activity in the cryptocurrency sector, with the provider having last week acquired Blockchain Alliance Technologies, which owns BTC.com.

500.com last month also announced it would acquire $14.4m worth of Bitcoin mining machines, before this month revealing plans to purchase a further 15,900 machines from two additional sellers.

The latest announcement initially saw 500.com’s share price increase to $28.43, but its shares have since dipped to $24.20 at the time of writing, down from an opening price of $26.35 at the start of trading today (23 February).