KindlyMD soars 250% after announced merger with Trump crypto advisor’s company

Quotes on KindlyMD, a smaller company with a network of healthcare clinics that, among other things, help patients to deal with opioid addiction, skyrocketed more than 250% yesterday, May 12, after it announced a merger with a company founded by David Bailey, a Trump cryptocurrency advisor. The combined entity has already raised a total of $710 million.

Yesterday, KindlyMD jumped 251% on the Nasdaq to close at $13.69 per share, its highest closing price ever (the company went public last year). During the session, it rose as high as $31.45 per share, more than eight times the previous close, but the stock has given back roughly 18% in premarket trading today.

The rally was triggered by KindlyMD’s announcement of a merger with Nakamoto Holdings, a bitcoin project founded by entrepreneur David Bailey. CNBC calls Bailey a key crypto advisor to U.S. President Trump. Once the deal closes, Bailey will lead the combined company, while KindlyMD CEO and founder Tim Pickett will continue to manage its healthcare operations.

According to the press release, the combined company has raised a total of $710 million, including $200 million in gross proceeds from the sale of debt securities and another $510 million from a private investment in public equity (PIPE) priced at $1.12 per share.

The private placement was participated in by more than 200 investors, including Actai Ventures, a fund cofounded by an early investor of Zoom and Canva, as well as Arrington Capital, known for investing in search engine Perplexity AI. CNBC notes that the list of individual investors reads like a “who’s who of bitcoin,” with names such as former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, Jihan Wu, a cofounder of crypto mining equipment manufacturer Bitmain, and Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas, one of bitcoin’s most vocal advocates.

Under Bailey’s leadership, the combined company will focus on acquiring and holding bitcoin. However, rather than simply buying and storing the cryptocurrency, it plans to acquire and create bitcoin treasury companies in “every capital market on the planet,” Bailey told CNBC. The company will eventually trade under a new ticker, and its healthcare segment is expected to play a smaller financial role.

KindlyMD is a healthcare company focused on helping patients combat opioid addiction. Founded in 2019, it has never turned a profit and has been struggling to fund itself in recent years. In its earnings reports for 2023 and 2024, the company stated that it needed more capital to continue operating. Just days before the merger news broke, on May 8, KindlyMD released its financials for the first quarter: Revenue fell 30% year over year, and the net loss ballooned 268%.

David Bailey has worked in crypto for 11 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He is a cofounder and CEO of BTC Inc, a well-known media and events company that owns Bitcoin Magazine, the first dedicated crypto publication, which Bailey acquired from ethereum cofounders Mihai Alisie and Vitalik Buterin.

Bailey is not just a businessman. CNBC and the Information both describe him as Trump’s key cryptocurrency advisor. Since Trump’s return to the presidency, Bailey has visited the White House at least six times, according to CNBC sources. The entrepreneur himself described his relationship with the U.S. president as follows: “When called upon, I provide the best feedback or counsel I can on bitcoin.”

The launch of Nakamoto Holdings was first reported on May 7. According to the Information sources, Bailey had been working on starting the crypto investment company since January. It is named after Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the creator of bitcoin. The source says that Nakamoto plans to acquire companies around the world — including in Brazil, Thailand, and South Africa — and invest its bitcoin in them.