Bitcoiner Chamath Palihapitiya filed documents to raise $250 million for American Exceptionalism, a prospective SPAC focused on the DeFi, AI, energy and defense sectors.
News
Early Bitcoin investor and billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya filed to raise $250 million in blank-check company “American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp A,” targeting the decentralized finance, AI, energy and defense sectors.
The special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) would be led by Social Capital managing partner Steven Trieu as CEO and Palihapitiya as chairman, to the registration statement filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
The $250 million raise seeks to offer 25 million shares at $10 each under the ticker AEXA on the New York Stock Exchange.
Palihapitiya and Trieu are betting on decentralized finance, not Bitcoin, to lead the next wave of financial innovation, focusing on solutions that bridge traditional markets with blockchain technology:
“While Mr. Palihapitiya has long been a proponent of Bitcoin as an inflation hedge and alternative to fiat currencies, we believe that the next stage of development is the increased integration between traditional finance and decentralized finance.”
Circle showed DeFi can ‘disintermediate’ TradFi, execs say
The pair pointed to the success of stablecoin issuer stating it “demonstrated how decentralized finance can be used to disintermediate traditional finance intermediaries and provide clear value for customers via reduced friction.”
The venture capitalists acknowledged the path toward of crypto and stablecoins has “taken longer than expected,” but that path “now appears to be inevitable.”
Palihapitiya has mixed results with past SPACs
Palihapitiya led several high-profile SPACs during 2020 and 2021, including successful mergers involving Social Capital Suvretta Holdings I and Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings V, now operating as SoFi Technologies.
However, other SPACs led by Palihapitiya, such as Social Capital Suvretta Holdings II, III, and IV, were liquidated, giving him a mixed record.
because they are bound by strict time limits to find a private company to merge with, often struggle to identify companies worthy of high valuations, and operate under considerable regulatory scrutiny.
Palihapitiya once denounced crypto as dead in America
The naming of Palihapitiya’s American-themed SPAC comes two years after he declared the crypto industry “Dead in America,” pointing the finger at for pursuing dozens of high-profile lawsuits against crypto firms.
Related:
Critics labeled Gensler’s crackdown part of “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” an alleged coordinated effort by regulators to pressure banks into distancing themselves from crypto firms.
Many of those cases, including ones against Coinbase and Ripple, have been dismissed under the new crypto-friendly SEC led by Paul Atkins, which has also created a to provide clearer rules while balancing innovation with consumer protection.
Magazine:
