Crypto influencer 'Pomp' seeks $200M in IPO

by David Morris

A blank-check company led by Anthony Pompliano, a cryptocurrency influencer, podcaster and investor, has filed for an initial public offering to raise $200 million.

Pompliano will be chief executive officer of ProCap Acquisition Corp., according to a filing Wednesday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Brent Saunders, chairman and CEO of Bausch + Lomb Corp., is serving as special adviser to the firm.

Pompliano has been the CEO of Professional Capital Management, an investment firm he founded, since January 2022. He was a co-founder and managing partner at Full Tilt Capital from 2016 until it was acquired by Morgan Creek Digital Assets in 2018, and worked there until 2020, the filing said.

Pompliano, who has 1.7 million followers on X and writes a daily newsletter for more than 260,000 readers, is the sole managing member of the SPAC’s sponsor, according to the filing. 

The company is seeking to list on the Nasdaq Global Market and is working with BTIG on the listing, the filing shows.

Special purpose acquisition vehicles are publicly-traded investment vehicles that use their cash holdings to acquire private companies and bring them into the public markets. These deals have continued to move ahead even as conventional IPO activity has stalled as a result of volatility stemming from the tariff-driven trade war.

Though ProCap may pursue a merger in any sector, the filing says it initially intends to focus on areas where the management team has experience including digital assets, fintech, asset management, and consumer and health-care industries. 

The filing comes as companies increasingly turn to equity capital markets to raise funds for investing in cryptocurrencies, following in the footsteps of Michael Saylor’s Strategy. 

In March, GameStop Corp. said it would borrow $1.3 billion via convertible bonds to fund Bitcoin purchases.  

More recently, shares of a Cantor Fitzgerald LP-affiliated blank-check vehicle soared after it announced that it would merge with Twenty One Capital Inc., a firm backed by stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings SA, its affiliate Bitfinex and SoftBank Group Corp. The unit plans to launch with more than 42,000 Bitcoin and will be led by Jack Mallers, the founder and CEO of Strike, a digital-payments provider on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, who will continue in that role.