In brief
- Taiwan-listed company WiseLink has led a $10 million raise for Top Win International, a Hong Kong-based luxury watch trader and retailer adopting a Bitcoin treasury strategy.
- The companies say this is the first instance of a Taiwan-listed firm backing a Bitcoin treasury company.
- Financially, WiseLink is profitable with growing revenue; Top Win is smaller with modest liquidity and disclosed control weaknesses.
Taiwan-listed public company WiseLink has stepped into Bitcoin treasury financing, leading a $10 million raise for Top Win International (Nasdaq: SORA), a Hong Kong-based luxury watch trader and retailer now expanding into digital assets.
The parties say their move marks the first time a Taiwan-listed firm has backed a Bitcoin treasury company.
“We believe now is the golden window to implement a Bitcoin capital strategy,” Tsai Kun Huang, CEO at WiseLink, told Decrypt.
Citing “global monetary easing and rising geopolitical uncertainty” as factors, Huang told Decrypt the search for “decentralized, scarce, and inflation-resistant assets” is accelerating, with Bitcoin as “the most mature and widely accepted among them.”
WiseLink executed a purchase of three-year convertible notes worth $2 million, leading other investors in the $10 million raise completed Friday. Chad Koehn, founder of U.S.-based asset manager United Capital Management of Kansas, participated as a private investor alongside four others whose names were not disclosed.
Top Win is the “only U.S. public company with a Bitcoin treasury play anchored in Asia,” Jason Fang, founder and managing partner at Sora Ventures, told Decrypt.
Sora Ventures is an Asia-based crypto investment firm founded in 2018 that is merging into Nasdaq-listed Top Win International as part of the company’s rebrand to AsiaStrategy.
Top Win intends to use the proceeds primarily to purchase Bitcoin, and may also invest in listed companies with Bitcoin treasury strategies. However, it has “no plans to operate as an investment company” or engage in investing and securities as a line of business, a spokesperson told Decrypt.
WiseLink’s Huang, meanwhile, says their vision is “not simply to ‘buy Bitcoin,’ but to tightly integrate Bitcoin reserves with our cross-border financial operations,” in hopes of creating a “dual engine of asset preservation and business innovation.”
Asked why the firm opted for convertible notes over straight equity, Huang told Decrypt it was done “for flexibility and risk management.”
The approach allows WiseLink “to enter initially as a creditor, securing principal protection and fixed income, while retaining the option to convert into equity later,” Huang explained. “It locks in our strategic partnership position today, while giving us the ability to turn into a shareholder once market conditions and company performance are validated.”
Bitcoin treasury companies
While some observers have told Decrypt beforehand that financially struggling companies looking into Bitcoin as a way to stay above water would “likely fail,” many more have come in and joined in the prospects, influenced by the corporate treasury playbook begun by Michael Saylor’s Strategy.
It’s worth noting that WiseLink, unlike other firms jumping on the Bitcoin treasury strategy bandwagon, has no indications that it is struggling financially: it posted a positive net income in 2023, with 2024 revenue at roughly $46 million over a trailing-12-month revenue of $53 million, according to its public financial data.
Top Win, meanwhile, is smaller in scale, with $3.8 million in working capital and $3.0 million in cash, and has disclosed “material weaknesses” in financial reporting that could let material errors go undetected.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
