Shares of Eightco Holdings (ORBS) rose 25% in early trading after the company announced it secured $125 million in new institutional funding commitments and made $75 million in investments in AI and crypto.
The commitments include $75 million from Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), an ether (ETH) treasury asset company that holds a nearly 7% stake in the company, according to MarketScreener data. Bitmine President Tom Lee will join the board of directors.
ARK Invest, whose chief futurist Brett Winton is becoming an advisor, and Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, have each pledged $25 million. Several other companies, including Coinfund, Pantera and FalconX, have also agreed to support the venture.
Alongside this funding, Eightco said it has already deployed capital in two high-profile investments. These include $50 million in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and $25 million in Beast Industries, the business arm of YouTube creator MrBeast.
The company, formerly known as Cryptyde and active in the packaging and logistics sector, also has a significant cash position in a cryptocurrency linked to the global identity network co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The project uses biometric verification via specialized devices called “Orbs” to create a digital identity that confirms that a user is a real person rather than an automated robot.
This system aims to solve a growing problem on the Internet: distinguishing human activity from content produced by AI systems.
Eightco has accumulated approximately 277 million WLD tokens, nearly 10% of the circulating token supply, along with 11,000 ether and $82 million in liquidity reserves, according to a company update.
Dan Ives, who chaired the company during its strategic shift in 2025, will resign.
Bitmine’s Lee said the strategy connects several major technology trends.
“For me, there is tremendous synergy between Proof of Human (Worldcoin), OpenAI’s core models, and connectivity with the world’s largest content creator, MrBeast,” he said in a statement.
Bitmine invested $200 million in Beast Industries in January.
The price of WLD increased by over 2% following the announcement to now trade at $0.362 per token. ORBS was recently trading at $1.00.
