A high-performance Canadian crypto stock is vying for a U.S. stock market listing, potentially opening the company to an army of hungry new investors.
DeFi Technologies—parent company to various crypto-focused subsidiaries, notably exchange traded fund (ETF) operator Valour—currently trades on Cboe Canada under the DEFI ticker, and over OTC markets under DEFTF. On Monday, the company announced that it had filed a Form 40-F registration statement with the SEC to also get listed on the Nasdaq stock market.
“The listing of the company’s common shares on the Nasdaq remains subject to the approval of the Nasdaq and the satisfaction of all applicable listing and regulatory requirements, including the Form 40-F being declared effective by the SEC,” the announcement clarified. The company’s shares will remain listed on Cboe Canada as well.
In financial market terms, this process is known as “uplisting,” when a company graduates from alternative, low-liquidity trading markets to an active, high-liquidity major stock exchange.
Though viewed as a great opportunity for smaller companies to accelerate growth, uplisting requires overcoming some significant hurdles. Factors include meeting a certain size, market share, and financial viability.
So far this year, DeFi Technologies has performed strongly on all metrics. Its stock is up 275% year-to-date, and its quarter-by-quarter profits have far outstripped its cost of business. As of July, the company confirmed that it had generated $105 million in profit this year, while its total market cap was just $429 million at the time.
Many analysts—including Reflexivity Research co-founder Will Clemente—have noted that this represents a remarkable price/earnings ratio that leaves DeFi Technologies largely “misunderstood” and “undervalued” compared to the average S&P 500 company.
Upon revealing its Q2 earnings, DeFi Technologies rebounded from a mid-year slump back above USD $2 per share, leaving most blockchain stocks in the dust during the crypto market lull period. Its profits have been driven by Valour, its subsidiary that provides crypto investment products in Europe, and DeFi Alpha, which finds opportunities to generate profits through low-risk arbitrage trades.
The company announced in June that it holds Bitcoin on its balance sheet. It doubled those BTC holdings in July, and also added Solana and CORE to its treasury.
Edited by Andrew Hayward