Renatus Tactical Acquisition (RTACU) — SPAC — Upside TBD
Current Price: $11.50
Target Price: TBD
Upside: potential multibagger
Expected Timeline: 1–2 years
I think this is one of the best ways to play both Trump-access-driven deal ecosystem and speculative crypto momentum, with a clearly capped downside. If everything plays out as with precedent situations, this could easily be a multibagger. The downside is fully capped at max 15%, so risk/reward appears very favorable. It’s not a value-based long term investment—but as a trade, the asymmetry is hard to ignore.
Renatus Tactical Acquisition Corp I is a newly listed SPAC with a mandate to pursue a merger in the crypto and blockchain sector. While the broader SPAC market has cooled, several factors make RTAC very timely and attractive.
- It was launched by the same team behind Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), the SPAC that took Trump Media (Truth Social) public in one of the most high-profile deals of the last cycle.
- Devin Nunes, the current Chairman and CEO of Trump Media, also chairs RTAC. Eric Swider, former CEO of DWAC, serves as RTAC’s CEO. This team has demonstrated they can secure and execute headline-grabbing deals.
- RTAC’s IPO was upsized twice due to investor demand, ultimately raising $240m. That’s a strong signal of institutional appetite in an otherwise cold SPAC market.
- RTAC has stated that its primary focus for an acquisition is in crypto and blockchain. One of the hottest corners of that space right now is crypto treasury companies. Multiple public shells—and at least one SPAC—have rallied aggressively recently (5x, 10x, or more) after pivoting to crypto treasury strategies. Some of these pivots were also orchestrated by figures who are close to or are in the administration.
Given the political and financial networks of the principals involved, there’s a strong chance RTAC finds the right target and triggers speculative inflows. And that upside could materialize well before any deal is announced. The IPO was just two weeks ago, so it might be that the stock is still flying under the radar.
So far, the market is pricing this optionality surprisingly cheaply. With trust value at $10/share and some additional value in the half-warrant (which will detach by early July and can be sold), the units are trading at just a low double-digit premium. That feels far too low for this kind of risk/reward skew.
The team behind RTAC
RTAC’s management has both strong political connections and a proven track record of launching highly successful SPACs. In a sense, they seem to be extremely well-positioned to capitalize on the current administration’s pro-crypto stance—and the bubble that it’s fueling.
Devin Nunes, who is the chairman of RTAC (and CEO/chair of Trump Media) is a notable political figure. He served in Congress for two decades and formerly chaired the House Intelligence Committee, which oversees most U.S. intelligence agencies. He now sits on Trump’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
Eric Swider (RTAC’s CEO and previous CEO of DWAC) also currently sits on the board of Trump Media. Alex Cano, former president and secretary of DWAC, is RTAC’s COO.
DWAC was one of the most successful (a.k.a. “pumped”) SPAC mergers ever, with the stock trading at a 5x to 13x premium over its trust value for a significant portion of its life following the deal announcement with Trump Media in 2021.
We can only speculate what acquisition target will this team choose for RTAC. But putting the pieces together, a crypto treasury play seems like a real possibility. The space has been red hot over the past month, with a substantial surge in companies pivoting to crypto treasury strategies. The market reaction to these pivots has been completely bonkers, with stocks immediately spiking up to trade at massive premiums to their actual NAVs. As Matt Levine noted in his recent piece:
Right now, if you have a few hundred million dollars lying around, you can buy any crypto you like with it, and the US stock market will give you an immediate 500+% paper profit. All you need — besides the startup cash — is a little public company to put your crypto in. […]
It looks a little bit like crypto keeps playing a prank on the stock market, and the stock market keeps falling for it.
It seems that current administration shares that sense of humor and has a real appreciation for a good prank. They’ve wasted no time getting in on the act. Here are a few fresh examples involving people in or close to the current administration. These are pretty relevant precedents of how RTAC could play out:
- Cantor Equity Partners (CEP): This is a SPAC that’s run by Howard Lutnick, who currently serves as U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Last month, CEP announced a merger with a crypto treasury firm Twenty One, which is backed by SoftBank and Tether. The share price skyrocketed by 5x to $50/share, and is now trading at $42/share.
- KindlyMD (NAKA): The company was an obscure shell trading at $1.15/share and ~$10m market cap. On May 12, it announced a merger with Nakamoto Holdings, founded by David Bailey, who is a crypto advisor to Trump. The plan is to transform into a Bitcoin treasury vehicle. The company announced a big $510m in PIPE and additional $200m in convertible notes funding. The stock jumped to $22/share (~20x), and currently implies a ~$11bn pro-forma market cap. I haven’t been able to find whether Nakamoto holds any other assets or cash currently, but this $11bn valuation is probably only supported by the $710m of freshly raised cash and a plan to convert to Bitcoin treasury.
- Asset Entities (ASST): The company previously traded at $0.40–$0.60/share (~$15m market cap). On May 7, it announced a merger with Strive Asset Management to become a Bitcoin treasury firm. Strive is run by Vivek Ramaswamy, who led DOGE with Elon for some time, and now is publicly floated as a possible Senate replacement for JD Vance. The PIPE was announced for $750m ($1.5bn including warrants) at $1.35/share. The stock surged to $7.50/share (10x+) and now implies an $8.5bn pro-forma valuation.
Given the background of the RTAC team—who are close to Trump and know how to make money by fuelling speculation—it wouldn’t be surprising if they decided to create a little crypto treasury of their own.
That said, I don’t think RTAC necessarily needs to jump into crypto treasury area to do well. Given that its management is directly tied to Trump Media and Trump himself, and that anything even loosely connected to Trump tends to soar these days (e.g. Newsmax), RTAC could perform well either way, as soon as the headlines start rolling in.
At the end of the day, investors are risking relatively little to wait and see how this plays out.
Other examples of the bubble
These may not be directly connected to the current administration, but they’re still highly relevant illustrations of the recent “crypto treasury” hype:
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): Initially traded at $2.91/share, with $2m market cap. This month, Ethereum co-founder decided to inject $425m into SBET and turn it into an Ethereum treasury company. Shares initially jumped to $34/share ($2.5bn market cap), and have since climbed to $79.21/share, implying $5.6bn valuation. Matt Levine has covered the situation here.
- DeFi Development (DFDV): DFDV pivoted to a Solana treasury strategy on April 17. Shares jumped from $0.70 ($10m market cap) to as high as $43/share, and currently trade around $20/share. The company holds 609,190 SOL (~$100m in value), with a market cap near $300m.
- Upexi (UPXI): As of early 2025, UPXI traded at $2/share (~$4m market cap). On January 23, it announced a pivot into crypto, aiming to invest in Bitcoin and other high-growth tokens. Shares jumped to $15/share (now at $10/share). As of May, it holds 596,000 SOL (~$100m in value), with a ~$400m market cap.
- Classover (KIDZ): Traded at $1.15/share (~$30m market cap). In early May 2025, announced plans to integrate Solana (SOL) into its treasury. There haven’t been any confirmed purchases yet. The stock hit $8/share (~7x), and retraced to $2.81/share.
- Sol Strategies (HODL:CN): Pivoted to a Solana-holding vehicle in September 2024. The stock went from C$0.15/share to current C$3/share. It now holds 420,000 SOL (~C$100m value) and trades at a C$500m market cap.
I’ve only found one notable attempt that has failed to generate the market frenzy in a similar setup so far—GD Culture Group, which has announced plans to build a crypto reserve and invest into BTC and TRUMP tokens. The market reaction has been muted.
Other details on RTAC
It’s a SPAC with a 24-month window to complete an acquisition. The trust value is $10.025/share. If the company fails to find a suitable targetin window, or proposes one that shareholders do not like, each shareholder will be given a choice to redeem their shares at trust value.
Currently, RTAC units (ticker: RTACU) still trade as a package: one common share plus half of a warrant to purchase one share at $11.50. These units are expected to split by July 7, after which the warrant will trade separately. Similar warrants typically trade in the $0.20–$0.30 range (for SPACs that trade close to trust value, so it might be higher here), and that would help to partially offset the potential downside.
While, overall, RTAC seems to be a fairly standard SPAC, it does have some unusual aspects.
For example, the sponsor, controlled by Eric Swider, was granted a slightly larger stake of Founder Shares than usual—22.5% versus the typical 20% (these will vest only in case of business combination).
Another unusual aspect is that 1.5m of Founder shares (out of 7m total) were sold to some non-Sponsor investors and company insiders at $2.45 per share. That’s a huge discount to the IPO price. Additionally, these non-Sponsor investors and company insiders were granted 0.7m of warrants for free. While it’s not unheard of for sponsors to sell some founder shares at a discount to other investors in exchange for commitments to participate in the IPO and to secure votes on the business combination, in this case, these non-sponsor investors were not even required to participate in the IPO or contribute additional funds at $10 per unit. It’s not clear who these non-Sponsor investors are, but the scheme looks a lot like ‘freebie’ distribution, potentially in exchange for favors down the road.
Hi DT,
What percent of your portfolio do you have in this stock, currently?
How much (%) would you add to your position if this stock declined to $10 per share, or lower, in the next week on zero news? Just trying to get a sense for your conviction as it pertains to your own money. Thanks.
It’s is a significant position (>5%) for me as I really like the asymmetry of the trade. If RTACU declines to $10, I will likely add more — assuming the thesis remains intact (i.e., a frothy crypto environment and continued business benefits from its connections to Trump).
Having said that, my own positioning should not be any indication whatsoever for anyone interested in RTACU or any other stocks published on SSI. I have made plenty of mistakes in my investing career and will make many more. So do your own due diligence, make your own decisions and pay less attention to position sizing of an online blogger 😉
Sigh, it says a lot about where we are in the cycle when bitcoin SPACs are on the table. But I get your point, the long grift trade has worked fantastically as of late. Could be worth allocating to a basket of these types of names (say, 25-50bps per position) as just one multibagger would provide a solid IRR.
Hi Ex Dividend – You mentioned “a basket of these types of names”. If you (or anyone else here) ends up buying a basket (and/or this stock—i.e., RTACU—included in the basket), I’d appreciate knowing which tickers and %s you hold in your basket? Thanks.
Hi ThriftingStocks — the other names I had in mind were things like CEPO and CEPT. Their predecessor SPAC, CEP, has become a 4-bagger after it announced it would merge with Twenty One and become a bitcoin treasury:
https://www.investopedia.com/another-bitcoin-treasury-is-coming-to-wall-street-twenty-one-lutnick-trump-11721669
I myself don’t have any investments in these names, but I’m thinking of casting a wide net and building a basket for my personal account. One could also consider looking at small shell companies (say, <$50MM market cap) as part of such a basket to potentially strike gold (see what happened with KDLY). A curious investor might look at shell companies with suspicious trading activity as potential targets. For instance, in the case of KDLY, its price more than doubled in the week and a half leading up to David Bailey's announcement that Nakamoto would be merging with KDLY, sending KDLY's price up another 5x. "Somebody always knows", as they say.
In my eyes, this is more of a short-term trade than a long-term investment. The froth and grift we're seeing today remind me of the SPAC boom back in the covid era, which was followed by a large SPAC bust. So buyer beware.
Interested in the mechanics of the equity / unit separation. Is there a procedure / corporate action to splitting them or does it happen automatically? Does the broker charge for splitting the warrant off ? Thanks.
Per prospectus the split will not be automatic:
“Once the Class A ordinary shares and public warrants commence separate trading, holders will have the option to continue to hold units or separate their units into the component securities. Holders will need to have their brokers contact our transfer agent in order to separate the units into Class A ordinary shares and public warrants.”
As for fees to separate units, I have only found this 4 year-old Reddit thread, which details fees for different brokers. This might be outdated. I have inquired Interactive Brokers about it and will let you know when I get the response.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SPACs/comments/l34yhq/list_of_broker_fees_for_splitting_spac_units/
Presumably the trust cash will earn the money market rate? Any expenses/leakage to offset the interest incomes?
I think the public warrants will likely be worth more than other “typical” SPAC warrants, given the possibility of much more right skewed outcomes.
Yes, my understanding is that interest will mostly accrue to shareholders. As explained in prospectus:
Is there anyway for the company to game “the number of then issued and outstanding Class A ordinary shares”? Can they issue more shares at lower prices before the initial business combination?
It seems that they can issue shares if they need or want to raise more capital for the combined company. However, these newly issued shares would have no claim on the trust account and would not be able to vote on the merger. Effectively, it would have no impact on the downside protection.
“Specifically, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide, among other things, that: […] prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional ordinary shares that would entitle the holders thereof to (1) receive funds from the trust account or (2) vote as a class with our public shares on any initial business combination.
These provisions cannot be amended without the approval of holders of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and vote in a general meeting.”
https://www.bamsec.com/filing/114036125019435?cik=2035173
We’re assuming the downside is $10. I’m trying to get a sense of how true that is. For those more experienced with SPACs… can you outline scenarios in which the downside could be bigger? Any experience in prior situations that could indicate how this trade could lose substantially more than 15%? Anything the sponsors/insiders can pull off to “rob” from us dumb money going in without insider knowledge? Just trying to get a sense of whether that risk-reward is really as asymmetric as you describe
The risk is very low as long as it is a SPAC. But imho once a merger/acquisition is announced, the downside can get much larger and after it de-SPACS the downside could reach 100%, at least in theory.
What is the de-SPAC timing? is it on the day the merger/acquisition announced? or is it the day the merger becomes effective?
Usually, it’s when the merger becomes effective. After shareholder approval, which is often the final chance for redemption.
Assuming you don’t forget or choose to redeem your shares when given the opportunity, the chance of downside below $10 is extremely unlikely. Maybe someone else has the details, but I recall one shady SPAC sponsor did try to rob the trust, but was unable to access the funds.
A google search found this article on SPAC lawsuits for further reading. A notable one is FAST tried to keep the termination fees for themselves, but that was lowering the upside.
https://businesslawtoday.org/2023/06/spac-litigation-mid-year-update-delaware-opens-gates/
You’re probably referring to Financial Strategies Acquisition Corp. ruling last year. Basically, the SPAC ran out of time to do a deal and then tried using bankruptcy to access the trust funds—money that should’ve gone back to investors—and instead use it to pay off creditors, including their own insiders. But the Texas bankruptcy court shut that down hard. The judge said the trust account belongs to public shareholders, not the SPAC, and that just because they filed for bankruptcy doesn’t mean they get to touch the trust money.
“The Court’s holding protects a preeminent investor protection in the SPAC industry, the SPAC trust account, recognizing that a debtor can only access funds in a SPAC trust account to the extent expressly enumerated in the underlying trust agreement — otherwise, such funds are not property of a debtor’s estate. This case of first impression establishes a precedent that SPACs cannot use bankruptcy to invade SPAC trust accounts and deprive their investors of their investments.”
https://www.kirkland.com/publications/kirkland-alert/2024/06/judge-rules-spac-trust-account-sacred-for-public-shareholders
I’m asking myself about the pricing. Checking price history of previous SPACS (including above mentioned) most of them traded around $10 or slightly above. I get the probability of high return due to the management teams connections, but is the 15% (or now almost 20%) markup justified? I think about best timing of buying. Will this markup be consistent or more a short term situation and wihtout any news within the next 2-4 weeks “It reverses to the mean”…
Yes, probably 95% (or more) of SPACs trade at trust value. The whole play here is akin to saying, ‘This SPAC is different and has a better chance of trading at multiples of trust value (even on purely speculative or meme grounds), and 15% is a low price to pay to see if it truly proves to be different’.
You are right, but I will adjust my sizing. With a conservative valuation I would be willing to load up the truck, but the 20% let me feel a bit uncomfortable for a reasonable position. Maybe I have luck and get my limit EHT order executed at $10.
Response from IBKR on unit splitting procedure and fees:
Thanks DT. That’s a rather chunky fee. That said, the steps outlined seem fairly manual from an admin perspective.
Does anyone know under what scenario the separation becomes mandatory?
It’s only a single message to IBKR, so seems pretty trivial.
My understanding is that separation becomes mandatory only if the company requests that, which it might do at a later stage.
I don’t mean sending them an email is difficult, I meant they would likely justify the fee by the manual nature of their process re the steps outlined above “After your request is received, we will:”………….
I had hoped IB would automate this and remove the fee, I think most retail brokers do not charge any fee.
Unless you have a large holding, it is usually cheaper to sell the units and buy the common and warrants vs splitting.
I believe the prospectus determines if separation is mandatory, it is not that common. When the business combination is completed, the units will automatically split, but at that point it is too late to redeem for the trust value.
Fidelity does this for free. I suggest avoiding purchasing spac units at IBKR
You can also request the split in Corporate Action Manager. Fee is the same at $300.
RTACU announced that starting June 9, 2025, the “units” (which currently trade under RTACU) can be split into their two separate components:
– Class A ordinary shares will trade under the new ticker symbol RTAC.
– Warrants will trade under the new ticker symbol RTACW.
https://www.bamsec.com/filing/114036125021431?cik=2035173
What is the benefit of spitting one’s units?
The warrants and common are usually more liquid than the units, so it is easier to trade if you split. It is also more flexible, you may want to sell the warrants and just hold the common.
Or if the commons trade up, you can essentially hold the warrants for zero cost basis maybe
any thoughts on where the warrants will trade? somewhere around $1?
Sounds reasonable. Warrants of other “more interesting” SPACs trade around $1 or higher. Don’t see why RTAC’s would be much lower than that.
Shouldn’t the warrants just trade as a call option, but with no time value? i.e. at a value equal to the difference between the stock price and USD 11.50 (assuming the stock price is above USD 11.50)
Actually it seems the warrants are not exercisable immediately, as per the prospectus: “The warrants will become exercisable on the later of 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination and 12 months from the closing of this offering”. So they should trade very similarly to a call option initially, including time value until expiration.
Tyche,
You should review the warrant agreement carefully. There are several conditions that make the warrant values differ from that of a call option (other than the fact that they are a warrant and the impact of the implied dilution). They include: forced exercises, issuers ability to impact settlement , etc.
Keep in mind you’re getting one half of a warrant per each unit.
What am I missing on the current warrant pricing? It seems like they are clearly overpriced relative to the shares. Ignoring practical considerations but just to demonstrate the point, imagine you buy 2 RTAC at $11.25 each and short 1 RTACW at $2.50, which are roughly their prices right now. The possible downside of RTAC is $1.25 per share, or $2.50 for the 2 shares. Shorting RTACW, which would go to 0 in the event of this downside occurring, means that you don’t lose money in this scenario.
If the price goes up then you will make much more money from the 2 shares than you would lose from the short warrant. Owning the shares strictly dominates owning the warrants I believe. If you like the leverage of the warrants then you could just leverage up the shares instead to give equivalent downside risk, with equal or better end result at every possible final share price.
I get that there are practical considerations so I’m not sure if the long/short arb is possible or wise, but doesn’t this show that the warrants are overpriced relative to the shares?
The warrants have a 5 year maturity and you are only considering the exposure until a deal is completed. Once a deal is completed the shares are free to fall to 0.
Gotcha, thanks. So if your strategy for the shares were to cap your losses by taking the $10 back if you can’t sell in the open market for more than that when the acquisition happens, the warrants would still have a value greater than 0 at that point. Thanks for explaining.
Don’t forget the warrants can be redeemed if the underlying trades above 18 for 20 trading days. The warrants are thus capped. The underlying is not.
On Monday, I gave IBKR instructions to convert my units into shares and warrants. They were converted the same trading day. I think I saved a few cents (not counting commissions) by converting vs buying and selling.
Trading prices now is equal, unit = stock + half of warrant. Aside from liquidity and ability to sell just the stock or just the warrant, any other advantage of splitting? Any other disadvantage? (Ryans pointed out the redemption disadvantage.)
I have sold the warrants received in the unit split and continue to hold common RTAC position only.
This has brought my cost basis very close to trust value. So now I have a true risk-free look on any positive outcomes from this SPAC.
How did you avoid the $300 IBRK fee? Do you hold RTACU with another broker?. Tx
Maybe selling RTACU and buying RTAC could be a cheaper way to sell the warrant depending on your circumstances.
I did not avoid it, the unit split did cost me $300.
But if you have a tiny position and $300 would make up a large % of it, then, as per Matt’s suggestion, selling the unit and buying the common + 0.5x warrant, leads to a very similar outcome as splitting the unit.
I recall during the 1st SPAC wave at some point sentiment turned and the common tanked post-despac’ing. Do you hedge the common? How do you avoid cases where the common tanks?
At least 10$ are guaranteed, as long as you do not wait until post-merger. I plan to sell after the announcement of a potential deal has made. With that I have still the floor of 10$ and can probably profit from rsing share prices.
For me, it is too much risk to wait after the deal has settled and the floor is away.
What are you guys going to do?
The Excel Stocks data type does not appear to recognize RTAC or its related tickers. Has anyone tested this functionality or identified a viable workaround? Thanks.
How did IBKR treat the cost basis for the unit split?
In my case it was $10.37 for the common and $2.19 for the warrant.
In my case, it was $12.02 for the common and 1.15 for the warrant. Obviously I paid more for the units than DT, but the split between them seems pretty inconsistent. On the other hand, Interactive usually has a good process for these types of things and since mine are held in a non-taxable account I don’t really care about the basis.
The Economist had a piece recently on the SPAC comeback:
“Most thought spacs were gone for ever. Yet there will be more new listings this year than in 2023 and 2024 combined (see chart). Is history repeating itself? Perhaps as farce. The spac revival will be smaller, but even more speculative—and infused with maga energy.”
“Trumpworld has always been beguiled by spacs. Before Donald Trump’s recent adventures into crypto and etfs, the president took Truth Social, his social network, public by merging with a spac. Others in his orbit are now cashing in. Devin Nunes, boss of Truth Social and an adviser to the president, launched a spac of his own in May. GrabAGun, an online arms dealer, will soon combine with a spac run by Omeed Malik, another Trump acolyte. When the deal closes, Donald Trump junior will join the board. GrabAGun’s prospects are bright given “the insanity that’s going on in the world”, he recently told cnbc. You can say that again.”
https://www.economist.com/business/2025/07/02/a-wall-street-wheeze-makes-a-surprising-comeback
Anyone know why this took a dive today ?
Some other SPAC started a treasury strategy for WLFI coin which some thought would be the target for RTAC (not sure why or why this was regarded as a good possibility other than WLFI coin is Trump backed)
Gotcha. Thanks
Which SPAC was it? Did it pop or does it look like a dud?
ALTS. It popped and then collapsed the next day.
Oh interesting, so it’s not a current pre-merger SPAC and doesn’t have that protection. Amusing that they being funded by World Liberty Financial using … WLFI tokens … to buy $1.5 billion of WLFI tokens. WLFI doesn’t even exist as of now so it has no actual valuation. I don’t know what kind of a grift this one is, but it’s hard to imagine it’s not a pure scam.
from SA:
ALT5 Sigma (NASDAQ:ALTS) agreed to sell up to 200 million shares (or equivalents) at $7.50 each through a registered direct offering and a concurrent private placement, raising about $1.5 billion before fees.
World Liberty Financial, the lead investor in the private deal, paid in $WLFI tokens.
Proceeds will be used to acquire more $WLFI tokens, set up a cryptocurrency treasury, settle litigation, pay debt, support operations, and for general corporate purposes.
While crypto treasury bets still work, the market is becoming increasingly saturated, so it’s not surprising that RTAC may have passed on this opportunity. Moreover, Nunes is far more closely connected to the Trump family than anyone at ALTS, so if they had wanted this deal, I think they could have been first in line.