ORBS makes strategic investments in industry-leading companies, including OpenAI and Beast Industries
Tom Lee, President of Bitmine (NYSE: BMNR), Joins the Board of Directors to Support ORBS’ Long-Term Investment Strategy
ARK Invest joins ORBS as a partner, providing strategic advice and private markets insights with a $25 million investment in ORBS
Brett Winton, Head of Futures Strategy at ARK Invest, will join the ORBS board as an advisor
Payward, the parent company of global cryptocurrency platform Kraken, invests $25 million in ORBS
The Company is backed by a group of strategic and institutional investors, including: Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), MOZAYYX, ARK Invest, Payward, World Foundation, Coinfund, Discovery Capital Management, FalconX, Pantera, GSR and others
/PRNewswire/ — Eightco Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ORBS) (“ORBS” or the “Company”) today announced new financing commitments totaling $125 million, including $75 million from Bitmine (NYSE: BMNR), with a commitment of at least $25 million from ARK Invest. Payward, the parent company of global cryptocurrency platform Kraken, has also committed $25 million to ORBS. The capital supports ORBS’s expansion into investing in technologies that will shape the next generation of artificial intelligence, blockchain infrastructure and global digital platforms for consumers.
ORBS also announced the closing of its initial strategic investments of $50 million in OpenAI and $25 million in MrBeast and Beast Industries. These investments position ORBS as a key hub of leading frontier technologies for AI and content creation, expanding its portfolio to include equity stakes in the world’s leading innovation companies. The company continues to hold Worldcoin, co-founded by Sam Altman, and Ethereum as a long-term supporter of the ERC-20 protocol.
The company has appointed Tom Lee, president of Bitmine, to the ORBS board of directors. Brett Winton, Head of Futures Strategies at ARK Invest, will serve as an advisor to the ORBS board of directors. Dan Ives will step down as president of ORBS.
“Bitmine invested in ORBS because we believe this company is at the center of the most important future needs and developments in artificial intelligence,” said Tom Lee, president of Bitmine and newly appointed independent director of ORBS. “In my opinion, there is important synergy between Proof of Human (Worldcoin), OpenAI’s core models, and connectivity with the world’s largest content creator, MrBeast. And ARK’s investment team, known for being at the forefront of identifying exponential growth opportunities, is further driving synergy and innovation at this company.”
World was created to address the crucial question of distinguishing between real humans and bots in the age of AI. Regarding the creation of World, Sam Altman noted: “We needed a way to identify and authenticate humans in the age of general AI. We were looking for a way to know which content was created by a human and which by an AI. We wanted to find a way to ensure that humans continued to be special and central in a world where the Internet would host a large amount of AI-generated content. We wanted to find a way to think about how to distribute access to that systems”.
“ORBS is driving a first-of-its-kind initiative, bringing together AI, blockchain and creator-driven platforms,” said Cathie Wood, founder, CEO and CIO of ARK Invest. “At ARK Invest, we are focused on technologies that have the potential to transform the global economy. We are excited to partner with ORBS to support their strategy as these technologies develop over the next decade.”
“Technology revolutions tend to follow power-law dynamics: a small number of platforms capture a disproportionate share of value. ORBS is positioning itself at the crossroads of three of these synergistic networks: AI, crypto infrastructure and global digital distribution,” said Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Kraken and Payward. “Capital invested in this convergence has the potential to grow non-linearly, and we are excited to support a strategy designed to exploit this asymmetry.”
ABOUT EIGHTCO HOLDINGS INC.
Eightco Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ORBS) is on a mission to acquire stakes in the leading AI model, OpenAI, and leading content creators, MrBeast and Beast Industries. Through strategic investments and partnerships, ORBS sits at the crossroads of blockchain infrastructure, artificial intelligence and next-generation consumer platforms. The Company focuses on creating long-term value for shareholders by allocating capital based on the transformative technologies that shape humanity’s future.
For further details, follow us on X:
https://x.com/iamhuman_orbs
INFORMATION ABOUT BITMINE
Bitmine (NYSE AMERICAN: BMNR) is a Bitcoin mining company with operations in the United States. The company is using excess capital to become the world’s leading Ethereum treasury firm, with an innovative digital asset strategy for institutional investors and public market participants. Guided by “the alchemy of 5%” philosophy, the Company is committed to using ETH as its primary treasury reserve asset, leveraging native protocol-level assets, including staking mechanisms and decentralized finance. In Q1 2026, the company will launch MAVAN (Made-in America VAlidator Network), a dedicated staking infrastructure for Bitmine assets.
For further details, follow us on X:
https://x.com/bitmnr
https://x.com/fundstrat
ABOUT BEAST INDUSTRIES
Founded and led by YouTube content creator, entrepreneur and philanthropist Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, Beast Industries is a multi-faceted entertainment, consumer products and CPG company. Global entertainment giant, MrBeast owns the YouTube channel with the largest number of subscribers in the world (over 450 million) and boasts more than 5 billion monthly views across all channels. Recognized as the #1 creator on Forbes’ Top Creators List (2023) and named to the TIME 100 and the inaugural TIME100 Climate List, Donaldson has built Beast Industries into a platform that delivers innovative content, record-breaking competition formats, and some of the fastest-growing consumer product launches in history, including the Feastables snack brand. The company also generates large-scale social impact through initiatives such as #TeamTrees, #TeamSeas, #TeamWater and Beast Philanthropy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has provided more than 20 million free meals and funded critical infrastructure projects around the world. At its core, Beast Industries combines entertainment, innovation and social engagement to create culturally impactful intellectual properties, market-leading products and lasting change.
PAYWARD INFORMATION
Payward, Inc. is a unified financial infrastructure platform that powers a family of products that advance a global, open financial system. Built on a single shared architecture, Payward enables clients to hold, trade, earn, pay and invest across asset classes without barriers or fragmentation.
In essence, Payward provides the underlying infrastructure layer for Kraken and an increasingly broad range of purpose-built products, including NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks and CF Benchmarks.
Payward separates the infrastructure from the product expression. Each product interface is designed for a specific customer segment, regulatory regime and use case, while operating on the same global basis:
- A single global liquidity pool
- A single engine that combines risk and margin
- A single system of guarantees and settlement
- A single compliance and licensing framework
Such a shared architecture allows Payward to scale efficiently, launch new products at low marginal cost and serve diverse global markets, while maintaining consistent risk management, regulatory integrity and operational resilience.
For more information about Payward, visit www.payward.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this press release, other than those of historical fact, may be deemed to be forward-looking. Words such as “expects,” “expects,” “will,” “anticipates,” “continues,” “expands,” “promotes,” “develops,” “believes,” “guidelines,” “objective,” “may,” “remains,” “project,” “outlook,” “intends,” “estimates,” “could,” “should” and other words and terms of similar meaning and expression are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such terms. Forward-looking statements are based on management’s current beliefs and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future results. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements due to various factors, including, without limitation: the Company’s inability to direct the management or operations of privately held businesses in which the Company is not a controlling shareholder; the risk of loss or impairment of the Company’s strategic investments; the Company’s ability to maintain compliance with Nasdaq’s continuous listing requirements; unexpected costs, charges or expenses that deplete the Company’s capital resources or otherwise delay the deployment of capital; our inability to raise adequate capital to finance or expand our business operations or strategic investments; regulatory changes, future legislation and regulation that adversely impact digital assets or the adoption of artificial intelligence; and changing public and government positions on digital assets or AI-related industries. In light of these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. For a discussion of other risks and uncertainties, as well as other relevant factors, any of which could cause Eightco’s actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements contained herein, please see Eightco’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including the risk factors and other information contained in its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on April 15, 2025 and subsequent filings with the SEC and available to the public. All information in this press release is as of the date of publication, and Eightco undertakes no obligation to update such information or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to such statements to reflect future events or developments, except as required by law.
Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2766918/eight_holdings_LOGO.jpg