- Nano Labs begins a $1B BNB strategy with a $50M purchase, aiming to acquire up to 10% of the circulating supply.
- Total crypto holdings hit $160M, including both BNB and Bitcoin, as part of its long-term treasury plan.
- Shares of Nano Labs fell 4.7%, despite the high-profile buy, signaling mixed investor sentiment.
BNB is the target of an ambitious new initiative from Chinese microchip maker Nano Labs, as the company has officially begun executing its plan to purchase up to 10% of the token’s total circulating supply. The company confirmed its first significant action with the purchase of $50 million of BNB as the initiation of what it anticipates to be a $1 billion long-term crypto treasury initiative.
Nano Labs reconfirmed on Thursday that its eventual aim is to own between 5% and 10% of the combined circulating BNB supply. This new acquisition puts its total cryptocurrency holdings of BNB and Bitcoin at approximately $160 million combined.
Nano Labs was established in 2019 by Sun Qifeng and Kong Jianping after they quit the board of directors of Canaan, a computer hardware manufacturing firm headquartered in Singapore. Nano Labs was listed in the year 2022 and has been focused on high-throughput and high-performance computing chips ever since.
Earlier this year, Nano Labs created a stir in financial circles when it announced plans to issue $500 million in convertible notes to fund its crypto purchases. The stock surged over 106% following that announcement.
However, the latest purchase of $50 million didn’t create the same excitement. On Thursday, Nano Labs’ stock declined 4.7% in the regular session and another 2% in the after-hours session to end at $8.21.
Also Read: BNB Price Breakout: Is $700 the Next Target for Binance Coin?
BNB Targeted by Nano Labs for 10% Supply Buy
BNB itself registered a minor 0.61% growth in the past 24 hours and is worth around $658 per coin as of press time. With its market cap standing at $93.4 billion and circulating supply standing at 145,887,575 tokens, buying 10% of the supply at going market rates would require about $926 million.
Its original supply was 200 million coins, but the Binance regular token burns have progressively reduced the circulating amount. Binance and its former chief executive officer, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, control 71% of the then-in-circulation 147 million BNB tokens, as of the June 2024 report by Forbes.
The trend of corporations’ cryptocurrency treasury holdings is growing, but there are still voices of dissent from the sector. Anthony Scaramucci, founder and managing partner of hedge fund company SkyBridge Capital, recently told Bloomberg why the sheen of investment in companies led by crypto could dull.
“The issue is, if you’re paying someone $10 and they’re investing $8 into Bitcoin, is the individual going to succeed? Yes. But you might have been better off simply investing $10 in Bitcoin. I think that is the issue,” he clarified.
Scaramucci furthered that while he is still bullish on Bitcoin and does not disagree with companies buying crypto, investors must thoroughly evaluate the operational and cost structures of treasury strategies of this sort.
Also Read | Binance Coin (BNB) Fails to Break $660 Despite $157 Billion BNB Chain Volume Surge
