Shares of Eightco Holdings (ORBS) rose as much as 25% in early trading after the company said it had raised $125 million in new institutional funding commitments and made $75 million in investments in AI and cryptocurrency.
The commitments include $75 million from Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), an ether (ETH) treasury asset company that owns a nearly 7% stake in the company, according to MarketScreener data. Bitmine President Tom Lee will join the board.
ARK Invest, whose futurist boss Brett Winton becomes an advisor, and Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, pledged $25 million each. Several other companies, including Coinfund, Pantera, and FalconX, also agreed to support the company.
In addition to the financing, Eightco said it has already deployed capital in two high-profile investments. These include $50 million in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and $25 million in Beast Industries, the business arm of YouTube creator MrBeast.
The company, formerly known as Cryptyde and active in the packaging and logistics sector, also maintains a significant cash position in a cryptocurrency linked to the global identity network co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The project uses biometric verification through specialized devices known as “Orbs” to create a digital identity that confirms that a user is a real person and not an automated robot.
That system aims to address a growing problem on the Internet: distinguishing human activity from content produced by artificial intelligence systems.
Eightco has accumulated approximately 277 million WLD tokens, about 10% of the token’s circulating supply, along with 11,000 ether and $82 million in cash reserves, according to a company update.
Dan Ives, who chaired the company during its 2025 strategic shift, will step down.
Bitmine’s Lee said the strategy connects several important technology trends.
“For me, there is tremendous synergy between Proof of Human (Worldcoin), OpenAI’s fundamental models, and connectivity with the world’s largest content creator, MrBeast,” he said in a statement.
Bitmine invested $200 million in Beast Industries in January.
The price of WLD rose more than 2% following the announcement and is now trading at $0.362 per token. ORBS was recently trading at $1.00.
