Eightco Holdings’ ( ORBS ) shares rose as much as 25% in early trading after the firm said it secured $125 million in new institutional financing commitments and made $75 million in AI and crypto investments.
The commitments include $75 million from Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), an ether (ETH) finance company that has a nearly 7% stake in the firm, according to MarketScreener data. Bitmine chairman Tom Lee joins the board.
ARK Invest, whose chief futurist Brett Winton will be an adviser, and Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, each committed $25 million. Several other firms, including Coinfund, Pantera and FalconX, also agreed to back the company.
Alongside the funding, Eightco said it has already committed capital to two high-profile investments. These include $50 million to OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and $25 million to Beast Industries, the business arm of YouTube creator MrBeast.
The company, formerly known as Cryptyde and active in packaging and logistics, also has a large treasury position in a cryptocurrency linked to the World 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 verifies that a user is a real person rather than an automated bot.
This system aims to solve a growing problem on the Internet: distinguishing human activity from content produced by AI systems.
Eightco has accumulated about 277 million WLD tokens, close to 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 strategic shift in 2025, will step down.
Bitmine’s Lee said the strategy connects several major technology trends.
“For me, there is a huge synergy between Proof of Human (Worldcoin), the OpenAI foundational models and joining the biggest content creator in the world, MrBeast,” he said in a statement.
Bitmine invested $200 million in Beast Industries in January.
WLD’s price rose more than 2% on the announcement to now trade at $0.362 per token. ORBS recently traded at $1.00.
