TL;DR:
- Nakamoto is seeking shareholder approval for a reverse stock split between 1-for-20 and 1-for-50 to lift its share price above Nasdaq’s $1 minimum.
- The company has traded below that threshold since October 30 and has until June 8, 2026 to regain compliance by staying above $1 for 10 straight trading days.
- With shares around $0.21 to $0.22 and down about 99% from their peak, the move highlights severe market damage.
David Bailey’s bitcoin treasury firm Nakamoto is trying to keep its Nasdaq listing alive by asking shareholders to approve a reverse stock split, a move that reflects how far the stock has fallen since last year’s peak. The company is seeking authority to consolidate shares at a ratio somewhere between 1-for-20 and 1-for-50, which would lift the share price mechanically without changing the underlying value of the business. What makes the situation so striking is that a company built around Bitcoin is now leaning on Wall Street financial engineering to stay listed.
Why the reverse split now matters
The pressure is straightforward. Nakamoto has failed to trade above Nasdaq’s $1 minimum bid requirement since October 30 and had been below that threshold for 110 trading days. Under Nasdaq rules, the company has until June 8, 2026 to regain compliance by closing above $1 for at least 10 consecutive trading days. That turns the reverse split from an optional cleanup exercise into a deadline-driven survival tactic. The proposal would not repair investor losses on its own, but it could buy the company time and protect access to public-market liquidity.
Nakamoto’s shares were trading around $0.21 to $0.22 in the materials tied to the plan, leaving the stock roughly 79% below the minimum level required to remain listed and about 99% below its May 2025 high. A reverse split can change the optics fast: 20 shares at $0.21 become one share at $4.20, or 50 shares become one at a much higher nominal price, while the holder’s percentage ownership stays the same. The arithmetic is simple, but the market message is far more complicated. Investors tend to read these moves as signs of distress, not strength.
The larger backdrop makes the plan harder to dismiss as a technical footnote. Reverse splits are a familiar corporate tool, but they usually arrive when confidence has already eroded and management is trying to preserve listing status before the market imposes a harsher verdict. Nakamoto is effectively asking shareholders for flexibility: approve the mechanism, and let the board decide whether to use it within the permitted range. That leaves the company in an awkward position where compliance may be achievable, yet credibility remains the more difficult thing to repair. Staying on Nasdaq would solve one immediate problem. It would not restore conviction.