BitMine’s Tom Lee Joins Eightco Board as ORBS Stock Jumps on $125 Million Fundraise

Shares of publicly traded blockchain and artificial intelligence company Eightco (ORBS) rose more than 15% on Thursday following news that the company has raised $125 million to continue its expansion into AI and blockchain.

The company earned commitments of $75 million from leading companies Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies and $25 million each from Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest and Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken.

BitMine’s Chairman Tom Lee will join the company’s board of directors, while Ark’s Chief Futurist Brett Winton will be added as an advisor to the board. Eightco chairman Dan Ives will step down as part of the transition.

“Bitmine invested in ORBS because we believe this company is central to some of the most important future needs and developments for AI,” Lee said in a statement.

Lee’s firm before invested $20 million in Eightco as part of its “moonshot” strategy, where it allocates a small portion of its balance sheet to high-potential projects – similar to Google X, which invests in companies trying to solve big, ambitious problems.

Eightco also announced that it has completed a $50 million strategic investment in OpenAI, and a $25 million investment in Beast Industries, the company of YouTube star MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson. BitMine has also backed Beast Industries, invested $200 million in the company earlier this year.

Eightco before has raised $250 million to create a digital asset treasury centered on World currency (WRLD), the Proof of Humanity project – co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman – which asks users to scan their eyes to prove their personality. The company still holds positions in Worldcoin and Ethereum, citing a long-term belief in the ‘ERC-20 protocol’, the technical standard for creating assets such as tokens on Ethereum.

“To me, there is a huge synergy between Proof of Human (Worldcoin), OpenAI’s foundational models and the connectivity to the world’s largest content creator, MrBeast,” Lee added. “And the Ark investment team, known for their groundbreaking work in identifying exponential opportunities, is further driving synergy and innovation in this business.”

Ark and BitMine are also intertwined in other ways. Wood’s investment firm has an active position of nearly $169 million in BitMine stock (BMNR) across all of its ETFs, making it the company’s 25th largest position. according to Cathie’s Ark data.

“ORBS is taking a unique initiative at the intersection of AI, blockchain and creator-driven platforms,” Wood said in a statement. “At ARK Invest, we focus on technologies that have the potential to transform the global economy.

A $25 million position in ORBS would put the company in Ark’s top 70 holdings.

ORBS is now trading around $0.94, which is still down about 12% over the last five trading days. Shares are down about 46% this year.