Eightco Holdings Stock OCTO Surges Nearly 5,000% on $270 Million Worldcoin Treasury Strategy

Eightco Holdings Inc. shares exploded nearly 5,000% intraday Monday, reaching over $75 per share after the Easton, Pennsylvania-based company announced a $250 million private placement plus a $20 million strategic investment from BitMine Immersion Technologies to implement what it calls the world's first Worldcoin treasury strategy. The massive surge came from a previous closing price around $1.50, making it one of the most dramatic single-day moves in recent market history.

The company said it will use the funds to acquire Worldcoin tokens as its primary treasury reserve asset, marking the first time a publicly traded firm has adopted Sam Altman's crypto project for corporate treasury purposes. Eightco plans to change its Nasdaq ticker symbol from OCTO to ORBS when the transaction closes on September 11, 2025.

Wedbush Securities senior equity analyst Dan Ives will serve as chairman of Eightco's board, bringing his expertise in technology and artificial intelligence to the venture. Ives called the move "the next step in the AI revolution around authentication and Proof of Human." The appointment represents a significant career shift for one of Wall Street's most prominent technology analysts.

Worldcoin represents one of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's most ambitious ventures outside artificial intelligence. Co-founded with Alex Blania in 2019, the project aims to create a global digital identity and financial network by distributing crypto tokens to verified humans. The initiative has raised over $250 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, and Reid Hoffman, reaching a $3 billion valuation by early 2024. However, the project has faced regulatory scrutiny in multiple countries over privacy concerns related to its biometric data collection methods.

The private placement was led by MOZAYYX with participation from institutional investors including World Foundation, Discovery Capital Management, Pantera Capital, Kraken, FalconX, and Brevan Howard. BitMine Immersion Technologies contributed an additional $20 million as part of what it calls its "Moonshot" strategy to support Ethereum ecosystem projects.

Eightco's treasury strategy centers on Worldcoin's "Proof of Human" technology, which uses iris-scanning devices called Orbs to create zero-knowledge digital identity credentials. The World network has created nearly 16 million verified human accounts across more than 45 countries. Altman has positioned the project as a solution to distinguish humans from AI in an increasingly automated world, calling it potentially "the largest network of real people online."

The company currently operates through subsidiaries Forever 8, an e-commerce inventory platform, and Ferguson Containers, a manufacturing solutions provider. BitMine Chairman Thomas Lee said the investment aligns with supporting innovative projects that create value for the Ethereum network, as Worldcoin operates as an ERC-20 token.