He comes out of a position of weakness. Shares closed at nearly 16 cents on June 29, and Nasdaq has twice warned the company this year that it was no longer in compliance with listing rules, in January for trading less than $1 and again in June because its public shares were worth less than the $15 million minimum.
K Wave is considering a reverse stock split, which would consolidate shares into a reduced number of more expensive shares to increase the listed price. The $250 million it hopes to raise is several times its total market value.
This retreat fits a pattern followed by Bitcoin miners.
These companies have sold more than 15,000 bitcoins from their highest holdings and signed more than $70 billion in AI computing deals, seeking more stable margins than mining deals, and treasury companies are now joining this rotation. And it worked for some of the struggling miners, as their stocks recovered from their lowest levels. For example, IREN, a former Bitcoin mining company that turned to AI, saw its shares jump more than 200% after languishing since 2022.
It’s the same shift of money from crypto to AI trading that weighed on bitcoin during a losing first half.
So far, the switch has not been proven to work. The AI infrastructure is capital heavy and filled with better-funded competitors, and K Wave needs to stay on Nasdaq long enough to spend what it raises.
