A warrant looks like a call-option but is issued by the company itself, often runs five years or more, and settles by issuing new shares. Warrants ride along with spac units, rescue financings, and some private-placement deals as a sweetener.
Two clauses matter. Most warrants are callable by the issuer once the stock trades above a threshold for a set number of days, which forces exercise. And some allow cashless exercise, which changes the share count math.
Example: a warrant with an $11.50 exercise price on a $16 stock has $4.50 of intrinsic value. If 10M warrants are exercised, the company receives $115M and issues 10M shares against a 60M share base, a 14% increase in count.
Related: spac, dilution, call-option, private-placement