Nasdaq-listed biotech firm 180 Existence Sciences (ATNF) is role to rebrand as ETHZilla after securing $425 million in deepest funding to pivot in direction of an ether-centered treasury approach.
The transaction, structured as a non-public funding in public equity (PIPE), is expected to nearby Aug. 1, the firm acknowledged in a assertion.
It’s backed by sixty institutional and crypto-native traders, in conjunction with Polychain Capital, Electric Capital, GSR, and founders of predominant Ethereum-based entirely platforms admire Lido, Frax and EigenLayer.
The firm plans to make say of the bulk of the funds to amass ether (ETH) as its core treasury asset and generate bigger yields than with archaic staking.
Electric Capital will wait on as ETHZilla’s external asset manager. The firm will leverage its holdings via an on-chain yield technology program that combines staking, lending and liquidity provisioning.
ETHZilla will furthermore birth alongside with a “DeFi Council” made up of Etherealize and other DeFi gamers to offer the firm input on how to higher monetize its ETH treasury.
“Our approach at closing aims to permit traders to find admission to publicity to a ambitious-yield capability ecosystem on the heart of the stablecoin and tokenized asset markets,” acknowledged McAndrew Rudisill, who is expected become chairman of the firm after the deal’s closing. “We question to assemble an incredible team of successfully-regarded veterans all over archaic finance and decentralized finance (DeFi) to abet guide this contemporary chapter.”
The firm joins a rising list of publicly-traded companies having a bet on ETH. These companies, coupled with DeFi treasuries, maintain accrued a entire of $9.5 billion rate of the cryptocurrency, akin to around 2% of its entire provide, recordsdata from StrategicEtherReserve presentations.
180 Existence Science’s shares are down 7% after the opening bell to $2.69.
