Eightco shares jump $125 million funding commitment from Btmine, ARK, Kraken parent Payward

Eightco Holdings’ (ORBS) shares rose as much as 25% in early trading after the firm said it secured $125 million in new institutional funding commitments and made $75 million in AI and crypto investments.

The commitments include $75 million from Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), an ether (ETH) treasury asset company that holds a near 7% stake in the firm, according to MarketScreener data. Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee will join the board.

ARK Invest, whose chief futurist, Brett Winton, becomes an adviser, and Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, each committed to $25 million. Several other firms, including Coinfund, Pantera and FalconX, also agreed to support the company.

Alongside the funding, Eightco said it has already deployed capital into two high-profile investments. These include $50 million into OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and $25 million into Beast Industries, the business arm of YouTube creator MrBeast.

The company, formerly known as Cryptyde and active in packaging and logistics, also maintains a large treasury position in WLD$0.3598, a cryptocurrency tied to the World identity network co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

The project uses biometric verification through specialized devices known as “Orbs” to create a digital identity that confirms a user is a real person rather than an automated bot.

That system aims to address a growing problem on the internet: distinguishing human activity from content produced by AI systems.

Eightco has accumulated roughly 277 million WLD tokens, close to 10% of the token’s circulating supply, along with 11,000 ether and $82 million in cash reserves, according to a company update.

Dan Ives, who chaired the company during its 2025 strategic shift, will step down.

Bitmine’s Lee said the strategy connects several major technology trends.

“To me, there is tremendous synergy between Proof of Human (Worldcoin), the OpenAI foundational models, and connectivity to the greatest content creator in the world, MrBeast,” he said in a statement.

Bitmine invested $200 million in Beast Industries in January.

WLD’s price rose more than 2% on the announcement to now trade at $0.362 per token. ORBS were recently trading at $1.00.