Medical equipment company Semler Scientific (SMLR) announced its third-largest bitcoin BTC purchase since adopting a bitcoin standard roughly one year ago.

The company in the ten days ending May 22 acquired 455 BTC for $50 million, averaging $109,801 per bitcoin. This acquisition, funded through its at-the-market (ATM) equity offering program, brings Semler’s total holdings to 4,264 BTC, purchased for $390 million and currently valued at more than $450 million.

To date, the company has issued 3,003,488 shares under its April 15 $500 million ATM program, raising $114.8 million.

Now roundly used as a key performance indicator by most companies adding bitcoin to their balance sheet, Semler’s BTC Yield, has risen to 25.8% in 2025. BTC Yield measures the year-to-date percentage change in the ratio of total bitcoin holdings to assumed diluted shares outstanding.

SMLR shares are lower by 5.3% in premarket trading alongside a sizable decline in the price of bitcoin Friday morning to $108,300.

StarkWare has established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, committing to holding a growing share of its treasury in BTC as part of its broader push to integrate the flagship crypto into its Starknet Layer 2 network.

While it has not disclosed the size of its holdings, CEO Eli Ben-Sasson said the company is leading by example, believing that all blockchain firms will eventually hold Bitcoin.

The blockchain firm, last valued at $8 billion, has recently focused increasingly on Bitcoin research and development.

The move places StarkWare alongside other crypto firms that have adopted Bitcoin as a treasury asset. It also follows President Donald Trump’s executive order to establish a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

Integrating Bitcoin

As part of its broader Bitcoin strategy, StarkWare is integrating Xverse, a Bitcoin wallet that supports Ordinals and Runes, into Starknet. This will allow Bitcoin assets to be used within the Layer 2 network for the first time.

The company is also launching BTCFi Season, an initiative by the Starknet Foundation to introduce Bitcoin holders to DeFi applications such as lending and yield farming.

Additionally, the Braavos wallet now supports Lightning Network payments, enabling faster and more cost-effective Bitcoin transactions within Starknet.

These developments support StarkWare’s broader vision of making Starknet a key execution layer for Bitcoin, addressing its scalability challenges. The company argued that while Bitcoin is widely seen as digital gold, limited transaction speed and high fees have constrained its broader use.

Bridging Bitcoin and Ethereum

StarkWare is also advocating for OP_CAT, a proposed Bitcoin soft fork that could enable trustless Bitcoin-to-Starknet bridges by allowing advanced scripting and programmable transactions.

The proposal, originally part of Bitcoin’s early design, remains a topic of debate within the community due to security considerations.

In the meantime, StarkWare is exploring alternative bridge models, including a federated multisig system that relies on a group of co-signers to secure Bitcoin and a BitVM-based solution that minimizes trust by using cryptographic dispute-resolution mechanisms.

StarkWare sees these innovations as part of a larger effort to make Bitcoin more than just a store of value, unlocking new financial applications while maintaining security and decentralization.

With additional Bitcoin integrations, partnerships, and incentives expected in the coming months, StarkWare aims to position Starknet as a bridge between Bitcoin and Ethereum, enabling greater liquidity and user adoption across both ecosystems.

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