Update (July 4 at 7 am UTC): This article has been updated to add a comment from a BNB Chain spokesperson.
Chinese microchip firm Nano Labs has officially kicked off its plan to hold up to 10% of the total circulating supply of BNB, with its first purchase of $50 million of the asset.
Nano Labs reiterated on Thursday that its long-term goal is to purchase up to $1 billion worth of BNB (BNB) and hold between 5% and 10% of the total circulating supply.
It said its recent purchase now puts the company’s holdings at roughly $160 million in BNB and Bitcoin (BTC).
Nano Labs was founded in 2019 by Kong Jianping and Sun Qifeng after their terms expired on the board of directors for Singapore-based computer hardware manufacturer Canaan. The firm went public in 2022 and primarily produces high-throughput computing chips and high-performance computing chips.
Nano Labs stock falls, BNB flat
Although Nano Labs’ share price rose by over 106% when it first announced a plan to issue $500 million of convertible notes to fund a BNB treasury, the latest purchase didn’t impress investors.
Following Nano Labs’ recent BNB acquisition, its stock price dropped more than 4.7% in the Thursday regular trading session and a further 2% after the bell to trade at $8.21.
BNB gained only slightly, rising 0.3% in the last 24 hours to trade at around $663 per coin.
Long road ahead to hit 10%
BNB has a market cap of $93.4 billion, and its circulating supply is 145,887,575, CoinGecko data shows.
Buying 10% of the current supply at market prices would cost roughly $926 million.
The initial supply of BNB was set at 200 million coins, but the supply is gradually decreasing because of the token burns initiated by Binance to reduce the number in circulation.
A June 2024 Forbes report noted that Binance and its former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao jointly hold 71% of the 147 million BNB that was in circulation at the time.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, a BNB Chain spokesperson said they recognized a growing institutional interest in BNB.
“We welcome all organic adoption that supports BNB and the sustainable growth of our ecosystem.”
Crypto treasury interest might fade
A growing number of companies are opting to hold crypto for treasuries; however, Anthony Scaramucci, founder and managing partner of the hedge fund SkyBridge Capital, doesn’t think the interest will last, according to a report from Bloomberg on Tuesday.
In the long run, Scaramucci thinks investors will question the rationale of investing in a company that holds a valuable asset when they could just buy it themselves.
Related: BNB Smart Chain block times fall to 0.8 secs amid Maxwell upgrade
“The question is, if you’re giving somebody $10 and they’re putting $8 into Bitcoin, are they going to do well? Yes. But you might have been better off just putting $10 into Bitcoin. I think that’s an issue,” he told Bloomberg.
Adding that, he is bullish on Bitcoin and “not negative” on companies buying up crypto, but as an investor, he thinks “you have to look through the underlying costs associated with each one of these treasury companies.”
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