Question MicroStrategy, understand MicroStrategy, become MicroStrategy.
Since MicroStrategy took the lead in incorporating Bitcoin (BTC) into its asset reserves in 2020, an increasing number of publicly listed companies in the U.S. and global enterprises have followed suit, and holding cryptocurrencies has become an obvious trend of stock and cryptocurrency integration.
By 2025, the number of companies holding crypto assets has surged from the original single digits to dozens.
However, this trend of companies holding coins has diversified into multiple different currents:
Bitcoin remains a stable choice due to its strong consensus; Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) have also attracted many followers due to their widely recognized foundations.
Nowadays, the trend of companies buying cryptocurrencies has even extended to the smaller market cap altcoin sector, such as $FET of Fetch.ai in the AI sector and $TAO of Bittensor.
Looking back at history, ETH fell by about 26.7% in a single day in June 2022, SOL dropped by 43% in November 2022 due to the FTX bankruptcy, and the vulnerability of AI coins is even more evident - for example, the emergence of the DeepSeek open-source AI model triggered a collective pullback of on-chain AI Agent tokens. The slightly larger market caps of FET and TAO have had volatility rates of approximately 15% and 18% respectively over the past 30 days.
Is it feasible for publicly traded companies to allocate these more volatile altcoins?
Who is laying out the AI coin?
To answer this question, we might as well examine which companies have been laying out these AI tokens, as well as the strategies and risks behind them.
Interactive Strength (TRNR): Buy FET, Fitness + AI Leap Forward
Interactive Strength is a Nasdaq-listed company that primarily sells professional fitness equipment and related digital fitness services, owning the brands CLMBR and FORME.
In simpler terms, it is about selling hardware devices such as fitness mirrors and climbing machines, supplemented by matching fitness courses and a digital platform.
The latest data shows that the company's market value is approximately 8.4 million dollars.
On June 11, the company announced plans to invest $500 million to purchase $FET tokens as part of its crypto strategic reserves, and the company plans to use these tokens to support AI-driven fitness products.
The company's CEO Ward stated: choosing FET over more widely held assets like Bitcoin reflects the company's plan to integrate Fetch.ai's technology into its product offerings.
Currently, Interactive Strength has secured $55 million in startup funding from ATW Partners and DWF Labs.
The source of this funding is the so-called "securities purchase agreement," which simply means that the company sells stocks to the aforementioned investors in exchange for cash, while the purchased FET tokens are held by BitGo, a professional custody firm; in addition, the transaction method chosen was to buy FET directly from the market rather than through over-the-counter (OTC) transactions.
ATW Partners is a private equity giant, and DWF Labs is a veteran market maker in the crypto space. Why are they willing to spend money?
The answer may lie in the bundling of interests.
ATW is focused on the fitness + AI story of TRNR, while DWF also has a demand for market making $FET.
DWF Labs received 10 million FET from Fetch.ai in September 2024, then deposited these FET into the exchange and provided market making for FET.
After all, if the $500 million is fully in place now, it could buy about 6.41 million $FET (calculated at the market price of $0.78 each), which may have a positive impact on the price in the short term if purchased directly in the market.
After the news was announced, the market responded positively.
On the 11th, the stock price of TRNR rose by 15%, and $FET also increased by 7%, but there has been some pullback since then.
However, like some previous companies that bought ETH, the company's total market value is only 8.4 million USD. Raising 500 million to buy FET is quite challenging and will require gradually increasing the stock price. If the market cools down or the $FET ecosystem fails, this money could go down the drain.
In the short term, this move feels like a gamble; in the long term, success or failure may depend on whether there is room for the AI fitness business to take off.
Synaptogenix (SNPX): Buy TAO, the biotech company turns around with the help of big shots.
Synaptogenix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing products based on Bryostatin-1, primarily for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. The company's market value is only 5 million dollars.
On June 9, the company announced an initial investment of $10 million to purchase Bittensor's $TAO tokens, with plans to gradually increase the purchase amount to $100 million.
As for the funding, it will initially come from the company's existing cash reserves, and in the future, it is planned to be supplemented through a $550 million Series D convertible preferred stock private placement. Similar to MicroStrategy's approach, holders will initially hold preferred shares (which enjoy fixed dividends), and under specific conditions, such as when the stock price reaches an agreed price, they can convert to common stocks. SNPX aims to attract institutional funds (hedge funds or family offices) through this.
The mastermind behind this coin purchase transaction is the well-known figure in the investment circle, James Altucher.
James is a widely followed entrepreneur, investor, and bestselling author, having founded or invested in over 20 companies across multiple sectors including technology, finance, and media; he was also a hedge fund manager involved in early investments in several startups.
As early as when Bitcoin was not widely accepted, James publicly promoted the potential of blockchain technology and became an early supporter in this field. During the crypto craze of 2017, he was referred to as the "Bitcoin Prophet" due to his extensive online advertisements.
In the business of SNPX, he is responsible for formulating and executing the $TAO investment strategy. Specifically, he led the token purchase program, including selecting phased market purchases to optimize costs and screening Bittensor subnets (such as Subnet 1, which focuses on machine learning tasks) for staking to pursue higher yields.
Recently, he has been continuously sharing the logic of trading SNPX to buy TAO on X, and he bluntly stated that buying SNPX stocks is equivalent to buying TAO at half price.
The key to the joining of the big shot lies in the ability to leverage connections to pull in private placement funds and attract institutional investors' attention to the transformation of the pharmaceutical company SNPX.
From the company's perspective, the motivation for this transformation stems from the bottleneck in the biopharmaceutical business. The clinical data for the Buoyantatin therapy did not meet expectations, the FDA approval outlook is unclear, and the company's stock price has been sluggish for a long time.
SNPX aims to achieve asset appreciation by holding $TAO and staking profits. Public information shows that it even plans to rename the company and stock code to strengthen the positioning of the AI token.
After the news on the 9th was made public, SNPX's stock price rose by as much as 40%, reflecting the market's short-term optimism about the transformation.
However, the initial investment of $10 million has exceeded twice the company's market value. If the $TAO price falls below $300, the asset value may shrink by more than 25%, resulting in significant financial risk.
The success of the $550 million private placement largely depends on James Altucher's charisma and market sentiment. If the funds do not materialize, the transition plan may be interrupted. The yield from staking $TAO seems unstable compared to the 30-day 18% volatility of the $TAO token.
This is obviously a high-risk, high-reward comeback battle.
Oblong (OBLG): Buy TAO, a cautious layout in the IT field
Oblong, Inc. (NASDAQ: OBLG) is a technology service provider focused on IT solutions and video collaboration technology. Its core product, Mezzanine, is a platform that supports multi-user and multi-device visual collaboration, widely used in the fields of corporate meetings and remote collaboration; the company's market capitalization is around $5.3 million.
On June 6, Oblong announced that it would raise $7.5 million through a private placement to purchase Bittensor's $TAO tokens and participate in its Subnet 0 staking program.
After the announcement, Oblong's stock price rose by 12% at one point, but as of the time of publication, it has fallen back to $4.04.
The current placement involves the sale of approximately 1.98 million shares of common stock or equivalent securities, priced at $3.77 per share, below the current market price. This also means that the company is offering shares at a certain discount to attract investors.
With this amount of funds, based on the current market price, approximately 1890 $TAO tokens can be purchased, which is not a large quantity.
However, you can regard this purchase of TAO as a strategic shift from traditional IT business to the fields of AI and digital assets.
Video conferencing solutions is a highly competitive field. Although the company's Mezzanine platform has a certain market share in video collaboration, revenue growth has slowed by about 5% since 2023, mainly impacted by competing software such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
The CEO of the company, Peter Holst, stated that the intersection of AI and blockchain is the key to future innovation, and that $TAO is seen as a potential asset for crypto AI infrastructure, similar to the early institutional adoption phase of Bitcoin.
At the same time, the company plans to achieve asset appreciation by holding $TAO and staking rewards, while also exploring the development of software tools based on Bittensor, such as AI-driven meeting assistance features.
However, Subnet 0 in the TAO subnet mainly focuses on AI directions such as text prompt tasks (like natural language processing). Oblong's choice to stake in this subnet seems somewhat forced when claiming it is directly related to video conferencing services; it is more about staking returns and positioning considerations.
This layout is more of a strategic trial to test the long-term potential of AI tokens.
Risk and reward coexist
The trend of enterprises holding cryptocurrencies has expanded from a single asset to a diverse range of options.
However, apart from BTC, the volatility of altcoins is significantly higher than that of BTC. Taking TRNR as an example, its market capitalization of 8.4 million USD plans to raise 500 million USD. If the price of FET drops sharply, highly leveraged financing to buy coins itself is a choice that comes with enormous financial pressure.
The risks of regulation cannot be ignored either; the primary concern for listed companies should be compliance. The SEC has classified SOL as a security, while the compliance of AI tokens remains unclear. If regulations tighten, will companies holding tokens face fines or liquidation?
However, the legal department has expressly prohibited it, as capital is always profit-driven. During the current window period, various companies are competing to imitate the crypto reserve strategy, perhaps already calculating their profits in their minds:
Ultimately, these are small-cap companies that are seizing the opportunity to embrace the wave of cryptocurrency assets in the capital market, aiming for higher volatility in altcoins. Moreover, the AI narrative endures; if successful, the ROI will naturally be very high.
Overall, the allocation of altcoins by listed companies resembles a high-risk, high-reward gamble.
For small-cap companies, this is a capital game betting on the future, and success or failure will depend on market sentiment, the continuity of the narrative, and the ability to execute in practice.
When the altcoin bull market is stockified, both enterprises and investors should keep in mind:
Risk is the essence of high-volatility assets, while returns are the rewards of seizing narratives and timing.
The content is for reference only, not a solicitation or offer. No investment, tax, or legal advice provided. See Disclaimer for more risks disclosure.
The trend of publicly listed companies buying coins has already reached AI altcoins.
Written by: Shenchao TechFlow
Question MicroStrategy, understand MicroStrategy, become MicroStrategy.
Since MicroStrategy took the lead in incorporating Bitcoin (BTC) into its asset reserves in 2020, an increasing number of publicly listed companies in the U.S. and global enterprises have followed suit, and holding cryptocurrencies has become an obvious trend of stock and cryptocurrency integration.
By 2025, the number of companies holding crypto assets has surged from the original single digits to dozens.
However, this trend of companies holding coins has diversified into multiple different currents:
Bitcoin remains a stable choice due to its strong consensus; Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) have also attracted many followers due to their widely recognized foundations.
Nowadays, the trend of companies buying cryptocurrencies has even extended to the smaller market cap altcoin sector, such as $FET of Fetch.ai in the AI sector and $TAO of Bittensor.
Looking back at history, ETH fell by about 26.7% in a single day in June 2022, SOL dropped by 43% in November 2022 due to the FTX bankruptcy, and the vulnerability of AI coins is even more evident - for example, the emergence of the DeepSeek open-source AI model triggered a collective pullback of on-chain AI Agent tokens. The slightly larger market caps of FET and TAO have had volatility rates of approximately 15% and 18% respectively over the past 30 days.
Is it feasible for publicly traded companies to allocate these more volatile altcoins?
Who is laying out the AI coin?
To answer this question, we might as well examine which companies have been laying out these AI tokens, as well as the strategies and risks behind them.
Interactive Strength (TRNR): Buy FET, Fitness + AI Leap Forward
Interactive Strength is a Nasdaq-listed company that primarily sells professional fitness equipment and related digital fitness services, owning the brands CLMBR and FORME.
In simpler terms, it is about selling hardware devices such as fitness mirrors and climbing machines, supplemented by matching fitness courses and a digital platform.
The latest data shows that the company's market value is approximately 8.4 million dollars.
On June 11, the company announced plans to invest $500 million to purchase $FET tokens as part of its crypto strategic reserves, and the company plans to use these tokens to support AI-driven fitness products.
The company's CEO Ward stated: choosing FET over more widely held assets like Bitcoin reflects the company's plan to integrate Fetch.ai's technology into its product offerings.
Currently, Interactive Strength has secured $55 million in startup funding from ATW Partners and DWF Labs.
The source of this funding is the so-called "securities purchase agreement," which simply means that the company sells stocks to the aforementioned investors in exchange for cash, while the purchased FET tokens are held by BitGo, a professional custody firm; in addition, the transaction method chosen was to buy FET directly from the market rather than through over-the-counter (OTC) transactions.
ATW Partners is a private equity giant, and DWF Labs is a veteran market maker in the crypto space. Why are they willing to spend money?
The answer may lie in the bundling of interests.
ATW is focused on the fitness + AI story of TRNR, while DWF also has a demand for market making $FET.
DWF Labs received 10 million FET from Fetch.ai in September 2024, then deposited these FET into the exchange and provided market making for FET.
After all, if the $500 million is fully in place now, it could buy about 6.41 million $FET (calculated at the market price of $0.78 each), which may have a positive impact on the price in the short term if purchased directly in the market.
After the news was announced, the market responded positively.
On the 11th, the stock price of TRNR rose by 15%, and $FET also increased by 7%, but there has been some pullback since then.
However, like some previous companies that bought ETH, the company's total market value is only 8.4 million USD. Raising 500 million to buy FET is quite challenging and will require gradually increasing the stock price. If the market cools down or the $FET ecosystem fails, this money could go down the drain.
In the short term, this move feels like a gamble; in the long term, success or failure may depend on whether there is room for the AI fitness business to take off.
Synaptogenix (SNPX): Buy TAO, the biotech company turns around with the help of big shots.
Synaptogenix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing products based on Bryostatin-1, primarily for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. The company's market value is only 5 million dollars.
On June 9, the company announced an initial investment of $10 million to purchase Bittensor's $TAO tokens, with plans to gradually increase the purchase amount to $100 million.
As for the funding, it will initially come from the company's existing cash reserves, and in the future, it is planned to be supplemented through a $550 million Series D convertible preferred stock private placement. Similar to MicroStrategy's approach, holders will initially hold preferred shares (which enjoy fixed dividends), and under specific conditions, such as when the stock price reaches an agreed price, they can convert to common stocks. SNPX aims to attract institutional funds (hedge funds or family offices) through this.
The mastermind behind this coin purchase transaction is the well-known figure in the investment circle, James Altucher.
James is a widely followed entrepreneur, investor, and bestselling author, having founded or invested in over 20 companies across multiple sectors including technology, finance, and media; he was also a hedge fund manager involved in early investments in several startups.
As early as when Bitcoin was not widely accepted, James publicly promoted the potential of blockchain technology and became an early supporter in this field. During the crypto craze of 2017, he was referred to as the "Bitcoin Prophet" due to his extensive online advertisements.
In the business of SNPX, he is responsible for formulating and executing the $TAO investment strategy. Specifically, he led the token purchase program, including selecting phased market purchases to optimize costs and screening Bittensor subnets (such as Subnet 1, which focuses on machine learning tasks) for staking to pursue higher yields.
Recently, he has been continuously sharing the logic of trading SNPX to buy TAO on X, and he bluntly stated that buying SNPX stocks is equivalent to buying TAO at half price.
The key to the joining of the big shot lies in the ability to leverage connections to pull in private placement funds and attract institutional investors' attention to the transformation of the pharmaceutical company SNPX.
From the company's perspective, the motivation for this transformation stems from the bottleneck in the biopharmaceutical business. The clinical data for the Buoyantatin therapy did not meet expectations, the FDA approval outlook is unclear, and the company's stock price has been sluggish for a long time.
SNPX aims to achieve asset appreciation by holding $TAO and staking profits. Public information shows that it even plans to rename the company and stock code to strengthen the positioning of the AI token.
After the news on the 9th was made public, SNPX's stock price rose by as much as 40%, reflecting the market's short-term optimism about the transformation.
However, the initial investment of $10 million has exceeded twice the company's market value. If the $TAO price falls below $300, the asset value may shrink by more than 25%, resulting in significant financial risk.
The success of the $550 million private placement largely depends on James Altucher's charisma and market sentiment. If the funds do not materialize, the transition plan may be interrupted. The yield from staking $TAO seems unstable compared to the 30-day 18% volatility of the $TAO token.
This is obviously a high-risk, high-reward comeback battle.
Oblong (OBLG): Buy TAO, a cautious layout in the IT field
Oblong, Inc. (NASDAQ: OBLG) is a technology service provider focused on IT solutions and video collaboration technology. Its core product, Mezzanine, is a platform that supports multi-user and multi-device visual collaboration, widely used in the fields of corporate meetings and remote collaboration; the company's market capitalization is around $5.3 million.
On June 6, Oblong announced that it would raise $7.5 million through a private placement to purchase Bittensor's $TAO tokens and participate in its Subnet 0 staking program.
After the announcement, Oblong's stock price rose by 12% at one point, but as of the time of publication, it has fallen back to $4.04.
The current placement involves the sale of approximately 1.98 million shares of common stock or equivalent securities, priced at $3.77 per share, below the current market price. This also means that the company is offering shares at a certain discount to attract investors.
With this amount of funds, based on the current market price, approximately 1890 $TAO tokens can be purchased, which is not a large quantity.
However, you can regard this purchase of TAO as a strategic shift from traditional IT business to the fields of AI and digital assets.
Video conferencing solutions is a highly competitive field. Although the company's Mezzanine platform has a certain market share in video collaboration, revenue growth has slowed by about 5% since 2023, mainly impacted by competing software such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
The CEO of the company, Peter Holst, stated that the intersection of AI and blockchain is the key to future innovation, and that $TAO is seen as a potential asset for crypto AI infrastructure, similar to the early institutional adoption phase of Bitcoin.
At the same time, the company plans to achieve asset appreciation by holding $TAO and staking rewards, while also exploring the development of software tools based on Bittensor, such as AI-driven meeting assistance features.
However, Subnet 0 in the TAO subnet mainly focuses on AI directions such as text prompt tasks (like natural language processing). Oblong's choice to stake in this subnet seems somewhat forced when claiming it is directly related to video conferencing services; it is more about staking returns and positioning considerations.
This layout is more of a strategic trial to test the long-term potential of AI tokens.
Risk and reward coexist
The trend of enterprises holding cryptocurrencies has expanded from a single asset to a diverse range of options.
However, apart from BTC, the volatility of altcoins is significantly higher than that of BTC. Taking TRNR as an example, its market capitalization of 8.4 million USD plans to raise 500 million USD. If the price of FET drops sharply, highly leveraged financing to buy coins itself is a choice that comes with enormous financial pressure.
The risks of regulation cannot be ignored either; the primary concern for listed companies should be compliance. The SEC has classified SOL as a security, while the compliance of AI tokens remains unclear. If regulations tighten, will companies holding tokens face fines or liquidation?
However, the legal department has expressly prohibited it, as capital is always profit-driven. During the current window period, various companies are competing to imitate the crypto reserve strategy, perhaps already calculating their profits in their minds:
Ultimately, these are small-cap companies that are seizing the opportunity to embrace the wave of cryptocurrency assets in the capital market, aiming for higher volatility in altcoins. Moreover, the AI narrative endures; if successful, the ROI will naturally be very high.
Overall, the allocation of altcoins by listed companies resembles a high-risk, high-reward gamble.
For small-cap companies, this is a capital game betting on the future, and success or failure will depend on market sentiment, the continuity of the narrative, and the ability to execute in practice.
When the altcoin bull market is stockified, both enterprises and investors should keep in mind:
Risk is the essence of high-volatility assets, while returns are the rewards of seizing narratives and timing.