Biotechs Turn to Digital Coins, Crypto to Boost Stock Prices (yahoo.com) 24
Struggling small biotech firms are pivoting into cryptocurrencies, rebranding as "crypto treasuries" or stockpiling digital assets like Ether and Litecoin as a last-ditch effort to boost share prices amid stalled funding and weak drug pipelines. Bloomberg reports: Shares of 180 Life Sciences Corp., now doing business as ETHZilla, tripled after the Peter Thiel-backed company said it had accumulated Ether tokens worth over $350 million. Less than two weeks later, the stock's gains have been erased. In July, Sonnet BioTherapeutics Holdings soared 243% in one volatile session on plans to transform into a public crypto treasury while MEI Pharma Inc. initially doubled on plans to sell shares to fund a Litecoin treasury.
Such about-faces are a tried-and-true formula for small firms when funds are low and shares are under pressure. For drugmakers it can be a sudden shift to chase after trendy new treatment targets, still other companies rebrand with buzzwords like artificial intelligence to juice returns. Now some biotech executives are using digital coins to pump new life into flagging shares. So far in 2025, at least 10 biotechs have announced a pivot into digital assets. The announcements frequently spark frenzied, but short-lived, spikes in shares. "If they're low on ideas, if they can't find relevance in drug development, they're going to try to justify their existence as management in another way," according to Mike Taylor, lead portfolio manager of the Simplify Health Care ETF. "You have a handful of companies trying to reinvent themselves into some other tangent. And, most, if not all won't work out."
Such about-faces are a tried-and-true formula for small firms when funds are low and shares are under pressure. For drugmakers it can be a sudden shift to chase after trendy new treatment targets, still other companies rebrand with buzzwords like artificial intelligence to juice returns. Now some biotech executives are using digital coins to pump new life into flagging shares. So far in 2025, at least 10 biotechs have announced a pivot into digital assets. The announcements frequently spark frenzied, but short-lived, spikes in shares. "If they're low on ideas, if they can't find relevance in drug development, they're going to try to justify their existence as management in another way," according to Mike Taylor, lead portfolio manager of the Simplify Health Care ETF. "You have a handful of companies trying to reinvent themselves into some other tangent. And, most, if not all won't work out."
Litecoin, huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
Funny, every once in awhile someone remembers that coin still exists. Supposedly, the developer (or more accurately, the guy who forked it from Bitcoin) sold off his holdings, at what at the time turned out to be pretty close to the peak in Litecoin's value, and it never recovered from that. He made himself a nice amount of real money out of it though, which seems to be the primary goal of people playing with cryptocurrencies. If you'd asked me before Mr. Lee had sold his holdings, I'd honestly have thought Litecoin had a good chance of dethroning Bitcoin, but in the crypto world, perception is everything. That sell off just made Litecoin appear to be one extremely elaborate rug-pull, rather than "the silver to Bitcoin's gold", as it was sometimes called.
My donut shop also has piles of DogeCoin (Score:2)
I did have even more Coinye coins but Ye, a sensitive man as he is, got all upset about it.
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Why wouldn't you just buy the crypto directly? (Score:5, Interesting)
I am failing to understand how these middlemen companies, and there are many of them, are able to convince investors to buy their stocks. If you are a crypto bro, why wouldn't you just buy the crypto itself rather than buying stock in a company that buys crypto? The valuations of companies like MicroStrategy, who gave up on building and selling software, simply do not make any logical sense.
Re:Why wouldn't you just buy the crypto directly? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm kinda tired of the world pretending crypto means anything or provides anything form of utility.
Prosperity gospel for the bro crowd.
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One can use them to get drugs shipped straight to their door.
Well, one can use a random coin to buy monero, then use monero to buy the drugs.
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This is true, I cannot argue with it.
Ok, new challenge, show me a utility for crypto better than drugs in the mail?
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Aww that is kinda true but less fun then drugs in the mail :(
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Quality fairly trust worthy drugs in the mail even.
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Wasn't Tesla doing the same thing for awhile, too? Then, IIRC, Musk's ADHD kicked in and he sold roughly 75% of it at, what in hindsight turned out to be a less-than-ideal time to sell.
If I was holding stocks, I'd want it to be ones from companies who are doing what it says on the side of the box, not gambling on crypto. But you know that old saying about the irrationality of the market...
The pivot makes it worse (Score:3)
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You can also lose a lot of money in casinos, or buy extremely expensive "art"
You get the idea
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They convince speculators, not investors, and the speculators are keen to get in early and out early. el Bunko-coin is the same deal. Speculators got in early and out early; the speculators were the insiders who knew what the game was. And el Bunko made killing on that shit-coin (so did Melania on hers). Now, that shit-coin is, well, shit. He and his sprogs made a similar move with his media company, and Lutnick, the whatever-he-is-for-the-alleged-administration, made a killing also.
If you thought there was
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People buy conventional managed funds all the time. The idea is you give your money to someone who "knows what they're doing" and they make you lots of money through their brilliant trading strategy.
There's also an argument that these companies can borrow money more cheaply than most individuals so they can trade on margin cheaper.
Hyper-evolutionary, multi-phase quantum blockchain (Score:2)