Zhibao Technology, a Shanghai-based insurance-technology firm listed on the Nasdaq, said Wednesday it has signed a non-binding term sheet for a stock sale that would be paid for in bitcoin — some 3,500 coins, worth near $220 million at current prices.

The deal, a private investment in public equity known as a PIPE, would have a buyer named Joyertech and Information OPC subscribe for Zhibao shares with consideration the company expects to include about 3,500 BTC. 

The figure remains subject to final valuation, custody arrangements, an audit, regulatory review, and definitive agreements. Zhibao stressed that the term sheet binds no one, and that the transaction may change or fall through.

The structure hints at a familiar move. Zhibao (NASDAQ: ZBAO), which pioneered a “2B2C” embedded-insurance model in China and launched the country’s first digital insurance brokerage platform in 2020, would keep running its existing business at first. 

Yet the buyer would name a majority of the board at closing, a control transition that would hand the newcomers the steering wheel while the current team minds the legacy operation until a later “separation, disposition, or other restructuring.”

$220 million in bitcoin has a new owner

In plain terms, a modest insurance-tech company would become a home for a large pile of bitcoin, with new owners in charge. Rather than raise cash and buy coins on the market, Zhibao would take the bitcoin itself as payment, a swap that seats a treasury on its balance sheet from day one. 

It is the kind of reinvention that has swept public markets over two years, as firms remake themselves around a bitcoin treasury and corporate holdings climb to records. Zhibao’s stock jumped near 24% on the news.

Behind ZBAO are employees, insurance clients, and a founding team that built something new in a crowded market, and the term sheet would fold that story into a treasury vehicle shaped by people who may value the shell as much as the business. 

For the current staff, the promise is continuity “until the separation” — words that carry their own uncertainty.

The wager holds warning signs. Analysts have called the treasury boom a bubble, and some treasury firms have started selling their coins under market pressure this year.