ReserveOne adds crypto insiders and ex-Trump official to board

ReserveOne, a new crypto startup backed by big names from both traditional finance and Washington, plans to go public on the Nasdaq through a deal with M3-Brigade Acquisition V Corp, a blank-check firm listed under MBAV.O, according to Reuters.

The merger is expected to close sometime between October and December this year, and the company is aiming to raise over $1 billion in the process.

The company says it will manage a crypto portfolio that includes bitcoin, ethereum, and Solana, and plans to align its strategy with the U.S. strategic crypto reserve. The entire push is part of a broader effort to package crypto into equity to make it more appealing to institutional investors.

The idea isn’t new. Michael Saylor’s company, MicroStrategy, did something similar in 2020 when it switched to a bitcoin-centered model and saw its stock price explode. ReserveOne is following that same model but throwing in more firepower from the top.

ReserveOne adds crypto insiders and ex-Trump official to board

Jaime Leverton, who previously ran crypto mining company Hut 8, is leading ReserveOne as CEO. Jaime said the firm’s upper-level team stands out because of its deep ties to finance, regulation, and crypto. “Our management team and anticipated board of directors bring a really unique pedigree and diversity of background between Wall Street and regulatory and crypto,” she told Reuters.

Sebastian Bea, who previously held senior roles at BlackRock and Coinbase Asset Management, will take over as president and lead investment strategy. The board will be chaired by Reeve Collins, one of the co-founders of Tether, the largest stablecoin company. It’ll also include Chinh Chu, formerly at Blackstone, and Wilbur Ross, the former U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Donald Trump. Jaime said Wilbur was skeptical of crypto at first but “over the last number of months, he’s really opened up to this space.”

ReserveOne says it will not only hold crypto but also put it to work. The company plans to lend out assets and stake them to earn regular payouts. This institutional staking model is already common in crypto, but ReserveOne thinks doing it as a public company makes it more credible to larger investors.

Backing this entire deal are two well-known crypto companies, Kraken and Blockchain.com, who are putting in up to $750 million in combined equity and convertible debt. The blank-check structure gives ReserveOne a shortcut to the public markets, skipping the longer traditional IPO route.

Blank-check firms like M3-Brigade are shell companies that raise funds first and then look for a private firm to merge with. Once the deal is complete, the private company becomes publicly listed. That’s how ReserveOne is landing on the Nasdaq.

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