Shares of consumer products firm CEA Industries (VAPE) are up more than 700% on Monday as the firm announced plans to begin a $500 million crypto treasury centered on BNB, the cryptocurrency launched by top exchange Binance.
The firm, in collaboration with 10x Capital and YZi Labs, is raising $500 million via a private investment in public equity (PIPE) offering, with another $750 million in cash available via exercised warrants. That would potentially grant it around $1.25 billion in proceeds that it would use to purchase BNB, the fifth-largest crypto asset by market cap.
“BNB Chain is one of the most widely used blockchain ecosystems globally, yet institutional access has been limited until now,” said 10X Capital Partner and incoming CEA Industries CEO David Namdar, in a statement.
“By creating a U.S.-listed treasury vehicle, we are opening the door for traditional investors to participate in a transparent way. This is a significant step in bridging digital assets and mainstream capital markets.”
CEA Industries works in the Canadian vape market following the June closing of its acquisition of Fat Panda, a vape retail chain and product manufacturer. The firm also adopted the VAPE ticker last month, after previously trading under CEAD.
Closing of the financing deal is expected to take place on July 31, at which point the firm will begin its BNB acquisitions. After its initial purchases, CEA Industries intends to scale its holdings over the next “12-24 months” using at-the-money (ATM) offerings and “other proven strategies” to do so.
Michael Saylor’s firm Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) popularized the crypto treasury vehicle playbook that has gripped public markets of late, using a variety of financing tactics—like the sale of convertible notes and preferred stock offerings—to raise funds and accumulate Bitcoin. Strategy now holds nearly $72 billion worth of Bitcoin.
CEA Industries may do more than accumulate BNB, though, as the firm aims to evaluate opportunities in staking and DeFi in the BNB ecosystem to generate revenue via its treasury.
“When YZi Labs first announced our support earlier this month, it was because we recognized the institutional potential of a publicly listed BNB treasury vehicle.” said Ella Zhang, head of YZi Labs, in a statement. “With the successful announcement of this PIPE, that conviction is now validated. We’re proud to see this vision come to life—expanding BNB’s utility and institutional access in a meaningful and sustainable way.”
Venture capital firm YZi Labs was formerly known as Binance Labs, and is now the family office of Binance co-founders Changpeng Zhao and his partner Yi He.
The firm is not the first publicly traded company to tap BNB for its treasury. In June, publicly traded blockchain infrastructure firm Nano Labs announced it would start a treasury focused on BNB, sending its stock up nearly 3x in the process. Last week, drug company Windtree Therapeutics announced plans to buy up to $700 million of the token, though shares fell on the day of the announcement.
BNB is outperforming all other major crypto tokens, jumping 2.3% in the last 24 hours as it set a new all-time high of $858.34. It has since retraced around 2.5% and is trading at $838.42.
At $75.00, shares of VAPE are now up around 851% year-to-date, buoyed by Monday’s gain of more than 700%.
