Crypto Journalist

Amin Ayan

Crypto Journalist

Amin Ayan

About Author

Amin Ayan is a crypto journalist with over four years of experience in the industry. He has contributed to leading publications such as Cryptonews, Investing.com, 99Bitcoins, and 24/7 Wall St. He has…

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Last updated: 

September 9, 2025

Shares of Eightco Holdings (Nasdaq: OCTO) surged over 3,000% on Monday, following the company’s announcement of a bold move to adopt Worldcoin (WLD) as its primary treasury reserve asset.

The little-known e-commerce inventory platform revealed plans to raise $250 million through a private placement of 171.23 million common shares at $1.46 each, aiming to build a substantial position in the Sam Altman-backed crypto project.

The offering is expected to close on Thursday, with strategic participants including the World Foundation, Kraken, and FalconX.

Eightco Shares Explode 3,000% in a Day, Then Dip After Hours

Eightco shares skyrocketed from $1.45 on Friday to $45.08 at Monday’s close, a gain of 3,009%, after briefly hitting an intraday high above $80.

After-hours trading saw the stock cool slightly, dropping nearly 6% to $42.40.

The company said it may also accumulate Ethereum (ETH) as a secondary asset, but its primary focus will be on Worldcoin, the controversial iris-scan-based cryptocurrency project run by World Network, formerly known as Tools for Humanity.

Eightco also announced plans to rebrand its ticker to “ORBS” to reflect its alignment with Worldcoin’s eye-scanning Orb devices, which are used to issue World IDs as proof of personhood in an increasingly AI-driven internet.

Worldcoin, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, aims to verify human identity online using biometric data. In return, users receive WLD tokens and access to a growing ecosystem of services.

While the project has gained traction, it’s also faced heavy scrutiny from regulators and privacy watchdogs, resulting in restrictions and bans in multiple countries.

“If we succeed on our mission, World might become the largest network of real people online,” Altman said in a statement.

Eightco’s move places it in the growing club of public companies diversifying into crypto treasuries, following the playbook popularized by firms like MicroStrategy and BitMine Immersion Technologies, the latter of which invested $20 million into Eightco as part of its broader crypto strategy.

Dan Ives Named Chairman of Eightco Amid Worldcoin Pivot

As part of the announcement, Dan Ives, Wedbush Securities’ head of tech research, was named chairman of Eightco’s board.

Known for his bullish views on AI and disruptive technologies, Ives called the move “the next step in the AI revolution around authentication and Proof of Human.”

Meanwhile, Worldcoin has surged 49.2% in the past 24 hours, trading at $1.54, with a seven-day gain of over 80%. Despite the rally, the token remains down nearly 87% from its all-time high of $11.74 in March 2024.

As reported, Worldcoin’s digital identity system, World ID, has surpassed 100 million uses across third-party apps, marking a major milestone for Sam Altman’s identity-focused crypto initiative.

However, mounting regulatory pressure and uncertainty continue to weigh on the project, prompting a rebrand to World Network and the rollout of new identity tools like NFC passport verification, aimed at privacy-friendly onboarding.

France, Portugal, Spain, Hong Kong, and South Korea have all launched investigations into the project’s data practices.

Solana (SOL) treasury company SOL Strategies secured approval to list its common shares on the Nasdaq, according to a Sept. 5 announcement.

The company expects trading to commence on Sept. 9, under the ticker symbol “STKE” while maintaining its Canadian Securities Exchange listing under “HODL.”

Shares will no longer trade on the OTCQB Venture Market, and existing shareholders will be automatically converted to the Nasdaq listing without requiring any action.

CEO Leah Wald said:

“Joining Nasdaq aligns us with the world’s most innovative technology companies and positions us to attract institutional investors who recognize the transformative potential of Solana’s infrastructure.”

She added that the listing provides shareholders with enhanced liquidity, while giving the firm access to deeper capital markets.

SOL Strategies completed its transformation from a diversified crypto holding company to a Solana-first investment vehicle after unanimously approving the strategy shift at its shareholder meeting on July 30, 2024.

The rebranding coincided with the appointment of Wald as new CEO in early July, which accelerated the company’s accumulation of SOL tokens and ecosystem investments.

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The green light marks a significant milestone for the Toronto-based company following its strategic rebrand from Cypherpunk Holdings and pivot to Solana-focused investments.

Institutional interest in Solana treasuries grows

The approval arrives amid broader institutional interest in Solana exposure, with Galaxy Digital, Multicoin Capital, and Jump Crypto reportedly seeking approximately $1 billion to assemble the largest dedicated SOL treasury through a public company vehicle.

Cantor Fitzgerald serves as lead banker for the effort, which contemplates acquiring a listed entity to create an institutional-grade Solana treasury.

Other companies also operate SOL treasuries through public markets, including Upexi, which has holdings surpassing $100 million, and DeFi Development Corp, reporting 846,000 SOL with plans to compound via staking yields.

SOL Strategies expects the Nasdaq listing to accelerate validator growth through institutional partnerships, enhance operational scalability as demand for Solana staking increases, and strengthen its position as the leading institutional gateway to the Solana ecosystem.

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Tether abandoned plans to freeze its dollar-pegged USDT tokens on several older blockchains and is choosing instead to classify them as “unsupported,” according to an Aug. 29 statement.

The change applies to networks such as Bitcoin Cash, Kusama, EOS, and Algorand, among others. Users will still be able to move tokens across wallets, but Tether will no longer issue or redeem USDT on those platforms.

The shift came after weeks of community pushback over the company’s original plan, which would have locked tokens in place and left them non-transferable.

‘Unsupported’ classification

In June, Tether had outlined a transition that would begin Sept. 1, 2025, with all USDT on the affected blockchains frozen and excluded from redemptions.

The move was framed as a way to streamline operations by cutting off support for networks that accounted for a negligible share of the stablecoin’s activity. Under that plan, tokens would have remained visible on-chain but effectively stranded without any movement or redemption path.

Following sustained criticism from developers and users on smaller ecosystems like EOS and Algorand, Tether retreated from a hard freeze. The firm said the revised approach “aligns with its broader strategy” while avoiding reputational damage.

The compromise allows Tether to wind down low-volume chains without provoking backlash from users who would have been locked out of their assets.

Pivot toward Bitcoin

The announcement came just one day after Tether disclosed plans to issue a native USDT on Bitcoin using the RGB protocol.

Unlike wrapped tokens that rely on custodial bridges, RGB integrates directly with Bitcoin’s scripting and client-side validation, making USDT part of the Bitcoin ecosystem’s security model.

USDT remains most heavily concentrated on Ethereum and Tron, each with more than $80 billion in circulation, alongside smaller footprints on Solana and a few other networks.

The decision to drop support for legacy chains signals tightening resources on platforms with higher adoption while staking new ground on Bitcoin.

Mentioned in this article

The US Treasury is exploring whether identity checks should be built directly into decentralized finance (DeFi) smart contracts, a move critics warn could rewrite the very foundations of permissionless finance.

Last week, the agency opened a consultation under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act), which was signed into law in July. The Act directs the Treasury to evaluate new compliance tools to fight illicit finance in crypto markets.

One idea was embedding identity credentials directly into smart contracts. In practice, this would mean a DeFi protocol could automatically verify a user’s government ID, biometric credential, or digital wallet certificate before allowing a transaction to proceed.

Supporters argue that building Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks into blockchain infrastructure could streamline compliance and keep criminals out of DeFi.

Fraser Mitchell, Chief Product Officer at AML provider SmartSearch, told Cointelegraph that such tools could “unmask the anonymous transactions that make these networks so attractive to criminals.”

“Real-time monitoring for suspicious activity can make it easier for platforms to mitigate risk, detect and ultimately prevent money launderers from using their networks to wash the proceeds from some of the world’s worst crimes,” Mitchell said.

Related: GENIUS Act to spark wave of ‘killer apps’ and new payment services: Sygnum

DeFi ID checks: protect data or risk surveillance?

Mitchell acknowledged the privacy tradeoff but argued that solutions exist. “Only the necessary data required for monitoring or regulatory audits should be stored, with everything else deleted. Any data that is held should be encrypted at row level, reducing the risk of a major breach.”

However, critics say the proposal risks hollowing out the core of DeFi. Mamadou Kwidjim Toure, CEO of Ubuntu Tribe, compared the plan to “putting cameras in every living room.”

“On paper, it looks like a neat compliance shortcut. But you turn a neutral, permissionless infrastructure into one where access is gated by government-approved identity credentials. That fundamentally changes what DeFi is meant to be,” Toure told Cointelegraph.

He warned that if biometric or government IDs are tied to blockchain wallets, “every transaction risks becoming permanently traceable to a real-world person. You lose pseudonymity and, by extension, the ability to transact without surveillance.”

For Toure, the stakes go beyond compliance. “Financial freedom relies on the right to a private economic life. Embedding ID at the protocol level erodes that and creates dangerous precedents. Governments could censor transactions, blacklist wallets, or even automate tax collection directly through smart contracts.”

Related: GENIUS Act yield ban may push trillions into tokenized assets — ex-bank exec

Who gets left behind?

Another concern is exclusion. Billions of people globally still lack formal identification. If DeFi protocols require government-issued credentials, entire communities, migrants, refugees and the unbanked risk being locked out.

“It may restrict access for users who prefer anonymity or cannot meet ID requirements, limiting DeFi’s democratic nature,” Toure said.

Data security is also a flashpoint. Linking biometric databases to financial activity could make hacks more catastrophic, exposing both money and personal identity in a single breach.

Critics stress that the choice isn’t binary between crime havens and mass surveillance. Privacy-preserving tools like zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and decentralized identity (DID) standards offer ways to verify eligibility without exposing full identity.

With ZKPs, users can prove they are not on a sanctions list or over 18 without revealing who they are. DID frameworks allow users to hold verifiable credentials and selectively disclose them. “Instead of static government IDs, users hold verifiable credentials they selectively disclose,” Toure said.

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