Vanadi’s Billion-Euro Bitcoin Gamble: Spanish Coffee Giant Goes All-In on Crypto

Move over, Starbucks—Vanadi just served up the most bullish crypto order in history. The Spanish coffee chain's board just greenlit a €1 billion Bitcoin treasury allocation, turning their frappuccinos into full-throttle futures contracts.

Corporate treasury or casino chips?

While legacy finance scoffs at 'coffee shop hedge funds,' Vanadi's CFO claims the move 'future-proofs' their balance sheet. Traders are already pricing in the next corporate domino—will your latte soon come with a side of Lightning Network integration?

One hedge fund manager quipped: 'At least when this blows up, they can write it off as a marketing expense.'

Vanadi struggles to recover with a Bitcoin bet

Vanadi’s had been struggling financially and operationally; its 2024 financial statement lists that it was operating at a loss of €3.3m, an increase of 15.8% from the previous period.

Competition and operating costs have eaten away at profitability bit by bit as the cost of coffee has risen ever higher, dragging the firm further into financial strain.

Meanwhile, Vanadi was looking for more money to build long-term. It received two large investment offers in May. One was from a tiny local software consultancy, a one-man outfit in Alicante, and he offered 50 million euros. The other was Alpha Blue Ocean, an international firm that announced it WOULD back 15 companies in 15 countries with over €1.5 billion in investment.

Critics raise concerns over Vanadi’s ambitious Bitcoin move

Vanadi’s daring foray into Bitcoin is not risk-free. The company has a handful of stores serving espresso and pastries, and it is now dipping a toe in the complex world of crypto treasury management.

But analysts and sceptics have raised red flags. They also note that Vanadi’s small size, slim operating margins and inexperience in crypto could be left open to volatility and then to scrutiny by regulators.

Unlike Strategy, whose tech-focused leadership team has many years of experience navigating capital markets, Vanadi’s management has a steep learning curve ahead.

And the regulatory climate for digital assets in Spain is also conservative. It’s not part of an activist group, but it is dynamic, and screwing any of this up in compliance or implementation would be expensive.

Vanadi is not alone, though. Companies worldwide are adding Bitcoin to their treasury, which is becoming a trend. US-based crypto firm Bakkt recently revealed its intentions to purchase as much as $1 billion of Bitcoin. Tesla and Coinbase are among the companies that have pursued comparable treasury strategies.

What sets Vanadi apart, however, is the scale of its ambition relative to its Core business. A €1 billion Bitcoin bet on a café chain with six locations and persistent losses is an aggressive bet by any measure.

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