The crypto treasury trend keeps expanding to encompass new assets, and on Monday, Avalanche got its first Nasdaq-listed firm to commit to buying AVAX—and the company's stock price has skyrocketed.
AgriFORCE Growing Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: AGRI) announced Monday that it will rebrand as AVAX One and plans to raise approximately $550 million as it refocuses on buying and holding AVAX, the native token of the Avalanche blockchain network.
Unlike some publicly traded firms that previously had no connection to cryptocurrency, AgriFORCE is a Bitcoin mining firm that focused on using clean energy to power the resource-intensive process of mining new BTC.
It’s unclear whether the firm will continue to pursue Bitcoin mining; Decrypt reached out to AgriForce for clarification, but did not immediately receive a response.
"The architecture of financial markets is changing, and programmable blockchains like Avalanche are the new foundation," said AgriFORCE CEO Jolie Kahn, in a statement. "For the first time, our company provides public market investors with a professionally-managed vehicle to invest directly in this transformation.”
“Our mission is to maximize our ownership of this foundational technology, AVAX, on a per-share basis, delivering direct value to our shareholders as this new economy grows,” she added.
AgriFORCE’s stock has spiked since the announcement, rising more than 200% soon after U.S. trading started. It was recently trading at $6.64, up 175% on the day.
AVAX is down about 4.5% on the day to $31.47 amid a broader crypto market dip, but remains up about 9% on the week.
AgriFORCE’s stated goal is to own over $700 million worth of AVAX tokens. Its capital-raising strategy includes a $300 million PIPE, or private investment in public equity (pending shareholder approval), along with plans for an additional $250 million through equity-linked instruments.
HiveMind Capital led the raise, with participation by over 50 additional firms including ParaFi, Galaxy Digital, Digital Currency Group, and Kraken. HiveMind founder Matt Zhang has been nominated as AgriForce’s chairman of the board, according to a press release.
SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci and Coinbase Institutional head Brett Tejpaul have also joined the company’s new strategic advisory board.
"Our vision is to build the 'Berkshire Hathaway of the on-chain financial economy,' which is the execution of a multi-year thesis that Wall Street needs a smarter, more scalable way to get exposure to institutional grade blockchain infrastructure," said Zhang, in a statement.
"Our near-term active strategy will focus on disciplined asset accumulation and, in the long run, acquiring and onboarding cash-flowing fintech businesses onto the Avalanche network,” he added. “This creates a powerful growth flywheel and sustainable NAV premium that differentiates ourselves from all other digital asset treasury companies and ETFs.”
Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) pioneered the crypto treasury play when it started buying Bitcoin in 2020, and now holds approximately $72 billion worth of BTC. It has inspired a growing wave of followers, some of which have expanded into holding assets like Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and BNB—and now Avalanche, too.
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