Swan Bitcoin questioned over unnamed investor and new trading fund
Swan Bitcoin recently announced numerous new lines of business, including bitcoin-backed lending, venture and private equity investments, and incredibly, a trading fund. Indeed, despite repeated warnings against active trading and an unwavering buy-and-hold message regarding bitcoin, Swan has hired a quant trader from Chicago to actively trade the currency. Fortune Crypto wrote that Swan “deployed” $200 million worth of capital in 2023. In that piece, Fortune publicized Swan’s “$40 million in funding raised in 2023 for expansion efforts.” However, it was initially difficult to determine exactly how much equity Swan sold to raise that capital. That “$40 million in funding raised” number was absent from Swan’s press release and it took several weeks for Swan founder and CEO Cory Klippsten to clarify that the raise was a convertible note that will roll into an upcoming fundraising round. In an email to Protos, Klippsten further explained, “ $16.5 million was in our Seri...