ORBS makes strategic investments in category-defining corporations, together with OpenAI and Beast Industries
Tom Lee, Chairman of Bitmine (NYSE: BMNR), joins board of administrators to help ORBS’ long-term funding technique
ARK Make investments joins ORBS as a companion, offering strategic advisory and personal market intelligence; commits $25 million to ORBS
Brett Winton, Chief Futurist at ARK Make investments, will be part of as an advisor to ORBS’ Board
Payward, the guardian firm of world crypto platform Kraken, commits $25 million to ORBS
The Firm is supported by a bunch of strategic and institutional buyers together with: Bitmine Immersion Applied sciences (BMNR), MOZAYYX, ARK Make investments, Payward, World Basis, Coinfund, Discovery Capital Administration, FalconX, Pantera, GSR, and extra
EASTON, Pa., March 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Eightco Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ORBS) (“ORBS” or the “Firm”) at present introduced $125 million in new funding commitments led by $75 million from Bitmine (NYSE: BMNR) with a dedication of a minimum of $25 million from ARK Make investments. Payward, the guardian firm of world crypto platform Kraken, has additionally dedicated $25 million to ORBS. The capital helps ORBS’ enlargement into investing in know-how shaping the following technology of synthetic intelligence, blockchain infrastructure, and world digital shopper platforms.
ORBS additionally introduced closing its preliminary strategic investments of $50 million in OpenAI and $25 million in MrBeast and Beast Industries. These investments place ORBS as a hub on the heart of key frontier AI applied sciences and content material creation, increasing its portfolio to incorporate possession stakes in world-leading innovators. The corporate continues to carry Worldcoin, co-founded by Sam Altman, and Ethereum as a long-term believer within the ERC-20 protocol.
The corporate has appointed Tom Lee, Chairman of Bitmine, to affix ORBS’ Board of Administrators. Brett Winton, Chief Futurist at ARK Make investments, will function an advisor to the Board of ORBS. Dan Ives will step down as Chairman of ORBS.
“Bitmine invested in ORBS as we imagine this firm sits on the heart of among the most vital future wants and developments for AI,” mentioned Tom Lee, Chairman of Bitmine and newly appointed unbiased director of ORBS. “To me, there may be great synergy between Proof of Human (Worldcoin), the OpenAI foundational fashions, and connectivity to the best content material creator on the planet, MrBeast. And the ARK funding group, identified for his or her pioneering work on figuring out exponential alternatives, is additional fueling synergy and innovation on this firm.”
World was constructed to deal with the vital subject of distinguishing between actual people and bots within the AI period. On the creation of World, Sam Altman has famous, “We wanted some form of approach for figuring out, authenticating people within the age of AGI. We wanted a approach that we might know what content material was made by a human, by an AI. We wished a strategy to guarantee that people stayed particular and central in a world the place the web was going to have numerous AI-driven content material. We wished a approach to consider how we have been going to distribute entry to those programs.”
“ORBS is taking over a singular initiative on the intersection of AI, blockchain, and creator pushed platforms,” mentioned Cathie Wooden, Founder, CEO and CIO of ARK Make investments. “At ARK Make investments, we deal with applied sciences which have the potential to remodel the worldwide financial system. We’re excited to be partnering with ORBS to help their technique as these applied sciences scale over the approaching decade.”
“Technological revolutions are likely to comply with power-law dynamics: a small variety of platforms seize a disproportionate share of worth. ORBS is positioning itself on the intersection of three such compounding networks, AI, cryptographic infrastructure, and world digital distribution,” mentioned Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Kraken and Payward. “Capital deployed at that convergence has the potential to scale non-linearly, and we’re excited to help a method designed to seize that asymmetry.”
ABOUT EIGHTCO HOLDINGS INC.
Eightco Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ORBS) is increasing its mission to personal stakes in main AI mannequin, OpenAI and main content material creator, MrBeast and Beast Industries. By way of strategic investments and partnerships, ORBS sits on the intersection of blockchain infrastructure, synthetic intelligence, and next-generation shopper platforms. The Firm is concentrated on constructing long-term shareholder worth by aligning capital with the transformative applied sciences shaping the way forward for humanity.
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ABOUT BITMINE
Bitmine (NYSE AMERICAN: BMNR) is a Bitcoin miner with operations within the US. The corporate is deploying its extra capital to be the main Ethereum Treasury firm on the planet, implementing an progressive digital asset technique for institutional buyers and public market contributors. Guided by its philosophy of “the alchemy of 5%,” the Firm is dedicated to ETH as its main treasury reserve asset, leveraging native protocol-level actions together with staking and decentralized finance mechanisms. The Firm will launch MAVAN (Made-in America VAlidator Community), a devoted staking infrastructure for Bitmine property, in Q1 of 2026.
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ABOUT BEAST INDUSTRIES
Beast Industries is a multifaceted leisure, shopper merchandise, and CPG firm based and led by YouTube creator, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Jimmy Donaldson, higher referred to as MrBeast. A worldwide leisure powerhouse, MrBeast is the most-subscribed YouTube channel on the planet with over 450 million subscribers and over 5 billion month-to-month views throughout all channels. Acknowledged because the #1 creator on Forbes’ Prime Creators Record (2023) and featured on the TIME 100 and inaugural TIME100 Local weather lists, Donaldson has constructed Beast Industries right into a platform spanning groundbreaking content material, record-breaking competitors codecs, and among the fastest-growing CPG launches in historical past, together with the snack model Feastables. The corporate additionally drives large-scale social influence by means of initiatives like #TeamTrees, #TeamSeas, #TeamWater, and Beast Philanthropy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has offered over 20 million free meals and funded vital infrastructure tasks worldwide. At its core, Beast Industries blends leisure, innovation, and goal to create culturally resonant IP, market-leading merchandise, and lasting change.
ABOUT PAYWARD
Payward, Inc. is a unified monetary infrastructure platform that powers a household of merchandise advancing an open, world monetary system. Constructed on a single shared structure, Payward permits prospects to carry, commerce, earn, pay, and make investments throughout asset lessons with out friction or fragmentation.
At its core, Payward gives the infrastructure layer behind Kraken and a rising set of purpose-built merchandise, together with NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, and CF Benchmarks.
Payward separates infrastructure from product expression. Every product floor is designed for a particular buyer phase, regulatory regime, and use case, whereas working on the identical world basis:
- One world liquidity pool
- One unified threat and margin engine
- One collateral and settlement system
- One compliance and licensing framework
This shared structure permits Payward to scale effectively, launch new merchandise at low marginal price, and serve various world markets whereas sustaining constant threat administration, regulatory integrity, and operational resilience.
For extra details about Payward, please go to www.payward.com.
Ahead-Wanting Statements
This press launch accommodates forward-looking statements inside the which means of the Non-public Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements on this press launch aside from statements of historic reality might be deemed ahead trying. Phrases comparable to “plans,” “expects,” “will,” “anticipates,” “proceed,” “develop,” “advance,” “develop” “believes,” “steerage,” “goal,” “might,” “stay,” “undertaking,” “outlook,” “intend,” “estimate,” “might,” “ought to,” and different phrases and phrases of comparable which means and expression are supposed to establish forward-looking statements, though not all forward-looking statements include such phrases. Ahead-looking statements are based mostly on administration’s present beliefs and assumptions which can be topic to dangers and uncertainties and should not ensures of future efficiency. Precise outcomes might differ materially from these contained in any forward-looking assertion because of numerous components, together with, with out limitation: the Firm’s incapacity to direct the administration or operations of personal companies the place the Firm shouldn’t be a controlling stockholder; threat of loss or markdown on the Firm’s strategic investments; the Firm’s potential to take care of compliance with the Nasdaq’s continued itemizing necessities; sudden prices, prices or bills that scale back the Firm’s capital assets or in any other case delay capital deployment; incapacity to lift enough capital to fund or scale its enterprise operations or strategic investments; regulatory modifications, future laws and rulemaking negatively impacting digital property or synthetic intelligence adoption; and shifting public and governmental positions on digital property or synthetic intelligence-related industries. Given these dangers and uncertainties, you might be cautioned to not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. For a dialogue of different dangers and uncertainties, and different vital components, any of which might trigger Eightco’s precise outcomes to vary from these contained within the forward-looking statements herein, see Eightco’s filings with the Securities and Change Fee (the “SEC”), together with the danger components and different disclosures in its Annual Report on Kind 10-Ok filed with the SEC on April 15, 2025 and subsequent publicly accessible SEC filings. All info on this press launch is as of the date of the discharge, and Eightco undertakes no responsibility to replace this info or to publicly announce the outcomes of any revisions to any of such statements to replicate future occasions or developments, besides as required by legislation.
