Nakamoto's $165 million Kraken debt now exceeds its market value

Nakamoto Inc. owes Kraken 165 million USDT, more than the entire company is worth on the stock market. The bitcoin treasury firm said on November 12 that it had pushed its nearest loan repayment out a full year, to December 2027.

Details came from a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Nakamoto signed a second amendment to its loan agreement with Payward Interactive, the company behind Kraken, on November 11. A short press release attached to the filing set out the new schedule.

This detail matters because Nakamoto is one of dozens of listed bitcoin treasury companies that borrowed or raised money to stockpile the coin. When bitcoin rises, the model looks clever. When it falls, the debt stays fixed while the assets behind it shrink. Nakamoto is now living the second case.

What the amendment changed

That loan totals 165 million USDT, Tether's dollar-pegged stablecoin. It splits into two parts. One tranche of 60 million USDT was due on December 4, 2026. That date now moves a year, to December 4, 2027. The larger tranche of 105 million USDT still falls due on June 30, 2027. So no principal is scheduled to come due this year.

Kraken also agreed to count more as collateral. The net value of the bitcoin derivatives positions Nakamoto holds in its pledged Kraken account now counts too, measured daily and never dropping below zero. Tyler Evans, chief investment officer of Nakamoto, said in the release that the deal "extends our runway and makes our collateral position more resilient."

Interest terms held steady. Nakamoto pays an annual fee of 7.75% as long as its subsidiary keeps at least 2,000 bitcoin in a designated Kraken wallet, Unchained reported from the filing. Below that level the fee rises to 8%.

Why the debt now tops the company's market value

Nakamoto's debt is larger than its own value on the stock market. Its shares trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker NAKA, and they have dropped along with bitcoin. The lower they go, the harder it gets to raise fresh money by selling stock, which is how treasury companies usually fund their buying.

Crypto.news put the company's market value near $104 million, based on a Thursday close of $5.79 a share. By Friday it was lower. Unchained calculated about $93.6 million, using a price of $5.10 across 18,346,473 shares at midday in New York. Either figure sits well under the 165 million USDT owed.

By that price, the 4,283 bitcoin Nakamoto reported on September 30 were worth about $293 million. That is more than double what the stock market now says the whole company is worth. The shares, in other words, trade below the bitcoin they are meant to represent, a discount that undercuts the entire pitch.

This gap did not open overnight. Nakamoto bought its bitcoin at a weighted-average cost of $118,171 a coin, its quarterly report shows. The price now sits far below that. Bitcoin's slide below $70,000 this week widened the hole. The coin changed hands near $68,500 on Coinbase at 17:24 UTC on November 13, according to spot data cited by Unchained. A buyer at the average price is down more than 40%.

The collateral math, and what the filing leaves out

As of September 30, Nakamoto had pledged 3,030 bitcoin to Kraken, out of 4,283 it held in all, crypto.news reported from the quarterly report. At around $68,500, those pledged coins were worth close to $208 million. That covers the 165 million USDT loan about 1.26 times, by Unchained's math.

Nakamoto has cut this loan before. It began at 210 million USDT in December 2025, Unchained reported. The company reduced it to 165 million USDT in June, after selling about 600 bitcoin and some derivatives for roughly $45 million that went to principal. In March it sold another 284 bitcoin at a 40% loss. Each sale trimmed the debt and the bitcoin pile at once.

The cushion is real. But it is thin for an asset this volatile. Unchained worked out that the pledged coins would stop covering the loan if bitcoin fell to roughly $54,455.

Put options are the clearest piece of downside cover. A put gives its holder the right to sell at a set price, so Nakamoto's contracts on 2,000 bitcoin at a $55,000 strike would pay out if the coin dropped below that level before they expire on December 25. That protects less than half the pledged stack, and only until the contracts run out.

What the filing does not say matters too. It names no coverage level that would trigger a margin call or let Kraken sell the pledged coins. It discloses no fee for the extension. And it gives no figures for pledged coins, or total holdings, after September 30. Nakamoto reported net income of $85.5 million for the third quarter, against a net loss of $286.2 million over the first nine months of the year, Unchained noted.

What to watch

Two dates now frame the company's year. The first test is June 30, 2027, when 105 million USDT comes due. The second is December 4, 2027, for the remaining 60 million USDT. Both sit far enough out that Nakamoto has time to raise cash, sell coins, or refinance again. A miss on either date could force asset sales at a bad moment, or a fresh raise on worse terms.

Price is the nearer risk. If bitcoin keeps sliding toward the mid-$50,000s, the collateral margin narrows and the put options become the main defense. A move the other way eases the strain and could lift the shares back above the debt. Nakamoto, led by chief executive and chairman David Bailey, has sold bitcoin once already this year to cut what it owes. Whether it sells again is the thing to watch.