Fintech Eightco shares skyrocket on move to amass cryptocurrency worldcoin

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(Reuters) -Eightco Holdings shares climbed more than 3,800% in volatile trading on Monday after the fintech firm unveiled plans to accumulate worldcoin cryptocurrency through a fundraise involving Peter Thiel’s BitMine.

The stock rose to $38.10, compared with its Friday close of $1.45, in its biggest one-day move on record. More than 145 million shares traded versus the 30-day average of 4.94 million.

The crypto industry has been booming in the U.S., buoyed in part by friendly regulations under the Trump administration. Small public companies have been widely adding cryptocurrencies to their coffers, mimicking Michael Saylor’s Strategy – the largest corporate holder of bitcoin.

Eightco is selling more than 171,000 shares at $1.46 each in a private placement, targeting about $250 million in proceeds to buy worldcoin.

Thiel-backed BitMine, a company which engages in a similar treasury-style strategy to hold ether, will also make a $20 million investment.

Co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in 2019, Worldcoin aims to create a global identity system by getting people to have their irises scanned in exchange for free cryptocurrency and a digital ID. The total value of worldcoin tokens was last at $2.7 billion, according to CoinGecko data.

Daniel Ives, a senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, will serve as board chairman, Eightco.

The offering is expected to occur on or about September 11 and the company will change its ticker to “ORBS” on the Nasdaq.

As of last close, Eightco had more than 3 million shares outstanding with a market cap of $4.4 million, according to LSEG data.

The stock was up more than 2,500% at $37.1 in morning trading.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)