Verb Technology has priced an oversubscribed $558 million private placement to pivot into a Toncoin (TON)-focused treasury vehicle in partnership with Kingsway Capital.

According to an Aug. 4 statement, Verb plans to rebrand to TON Strategy Co. (TSC) post-close and become the first publicly traded treasury reserve for Toncoin (TON), expected on or around August 7.

The PIPE covers roughly 58.7 million shares of common stock, including pre-funded warrants sold to institutional and accredited investors at $9.51 per share, matching VERB’s Aug. 1 close. 

The company will deploy the majority of net proceeds to acquire TON as its primary treasury reserve asset and stake holdings to generate recurring rewards, targeting a cash-flow-positive treasury model. 

VERB will continue trading on Nasdaq until closing, and existing operations will continue and are expected to expand.

The announcement partially confirms rumors that the Ton Foundation was planning a $400 million raise to build the first TON treasury vehicle.

First TON treasury

The strategy leans on Telegram’s deepening integration with TON. Telegram and the Ton Foundation have made TON the exclusive blockchain powering the messenger’s ecosystem, while TON Wallet recently went live for 87 million US users. 

Telegram reports more than 1 billion monthly active users globally, positioning TON for mainstream distribution inside a large-scale consumer platform.

Incoming executive chairman Manuel Stotz is president at the Ton Foundation and CEO at Kingsway Capital. He said a permanent-capital vehicle suits TON’s potential to compound value and deliver staking yield. 

CEO and co-founder of Blockchain.com, Peter Smith, will serve as special advisor, calling the move a catalyst for broader crypto adoption. 

The incoming executive team also includes former Ton Foundation and JPMorgan names.

More than 110 institutional and crypto-native investors subscribed, led by Kingsway and anchored by Vy Capital, Blockchain.com, Ribbit Capital, and Graticule (GAMA). 

Additional participants include CMCC Global, Pantera, MEXC Ventures, FalconX, along with several notable founders such as Ethena Labs’ Guy Young.

Post-close, Verb expects 36% of its share capital to be locked up for six to twelve months, a cash-assets-to-total-assets ratio of 77%, and an initial cash position sized at roughly 5% of TON’s circulating market value. 

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Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A 1.99%) (BRK.B 1.76%) has crushed the S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.47%) over the last 60 years thanks in part to savvy investment decisions about long-held stocks like American Express and Coca-Cola — and more recently Apple. But Berkshire’s stakes in public companies may no longer be the driving force behind its success.

On May 3 Berkshire published its first-quarter results, which included a new record position in cash, cash equivalents, and investments in U.S. Treasury bills of $342.39 billion. As of May 2, the value of Berkshire’s public equity portfolio was $277.41 billion, or roughly a quarter its market cap of $1.16 trillion. The rest of Berkshire’s value comes from its subsidiaries.

Berkshire has plenty of valuable wholly-owned businesses, from the BNSF railroad to utility giant Berkshire Hathaway Energy. But by far the most important category is its property and casualty (P&C) insurance businesses. At Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday, investors had plenty of questions about the future of the P&C businesses: from how they will fare in the face of an onslaught of private equity investment to the changing landscape of insurance in the autonomous age.

Are potential changes in P&C insurance enough to derail the Berkshire Hathaway investment thesis? Here are key takeaways from what Warren Buffett and Berkshire’s vice chairman of insurance operations, Ajit Jain, said during the annual meeting.

Image source: Getty Images.

A changing game

In Q1, income from insurance underwriting and insurance investment combined was $4.23 billion, or a whopping 43.9% of total operating earnings.

As insurance has grown, it has become a bigger topic at Berkshire’s annual meetings. And for good reason, considering its impact on operating earnings.

Berkshire has maintained its focus on the P&C side of the insurance industry — distancing itself from the life insurance business, now dominated by private equity. During the annual meeting, Buffett and Jain said that private equity firms can make a lot of money in that area, but that the leverage and credit risk aren’t appealing to Berkshire anymore from a risk-management standpoint.

Another change to the insurance business has been the rise of autonomous vehicles. An audience member asked if this rise would change the underwriting requirements of the insurance business. Buffett responded, “We expect change in all of our ideas,” welcoming changes in the auto insurance industry. He also said that an annual auto insurance policy from GEICO in the 1950s could cost as little as $40, whereas today, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to have a $2,000 annual policy. Even as the cost of insurance is up some 50-fold, Buffett said that accidents have fallen by more than 80%. So the prospect of autonomous vehicles reducing accidents further doesn’t necessarily jeopardize the insurance investment opportunity.

Jain said that full vehicle autonomy could transform the auto insurance business from concentrating on the risks of operator error to instead focus on the automaker’s errors and omissions in creating autonomous vehicle driving capabilities, which would essentially become a product liability issue. Buffett followed up by reaffirming his confidence that the auto business has been a huge growth industry, saying “We do have unusual advantages in the insurance business that can’t be replicated by the competition.”

It’s worth noting that we’re a long way away from full autonomy on U.S. roadways. As autonomous vehicles make up a larger share of the vehicle mix and encounters between autonomous vehicles and human-driven vehicles rise, it wouldn’t be surprising if insurance becomes an even more profitable business — either through policies controlled by owners of autonomous vehicles, or maybe by the auto manufacturers including a policy with the sale of the vehicle as a value-added option.

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), for example, has gotten into the insurance business through Tesla Real-Time Insurance, which measures a safety score and offers discounts based on whether its “Full Self-Driving” feature is used at least 50% of the time. However, insuring fully autonomous vehicles is a different animal.

Focusing on the long term

Widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles would be a game changer for the P&C business, but it’s an adjustment that the whole industry must adapt to — not just Berkshire. Still, insurance has become a crucial element of Berkshire Hathaway’s investment thesis, so you may want to monitor how technology advancements impact underwriting criteria and Berkshire’s operating earnings.

When looking at Berkshire (as with any company), it’s best to focus on where it will be several years from now, instead of getting too caught up in changes to quarterly or annual results. As Buffett said during Saturday’s annual shareholder meeting, “We don’t do anything based on its impact on quarterly or annual earnings.”

Staying true to this philosophy will likely give Berkshire Hathaway an advantage in navigating vehicle autonomy. The long-term mindset could even lead it to gain market share in the industry, especially if its competitors are more interested in making money quickly than building lasting businesses.

There’s no doubt that investors can make millions of dollars by investing in electric car stocks. Just ask long-term holders of Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA). Despite heavy ups and downs over the years, shares are up by more than 22,000% since 2010.

Looking for the next Tesla? The two EV stocks below are for you.

This EV maker should double its sales in 2025

If you’re looking for EV stocks with huge growth potential, start with Lucid Group (LCID -2.15%). Compared to the other stocks on this list, Lucid is growing the fastest today, and there’s reason to believe high growth could be achievable for several more years to come.

Last year, Lucid only had one EV on the market: The Lucid Air. This model came in several variants, but all essentially came down to a luxury electric sedan priced between $70,000 and $250,000, depending on options. The Air was an impressive initial vehicle for Lucid, helping grow the company’s sales to nearly $1 billion. But the Lucid Air had severe limitations. Its high cost priced out most of the market, while its sedan form factor deterred anyone looking for something roomier, like an SUV.

Earlier this year, Lucid solved half of that challenge with the launch of its Gravity SUV platform — essentially doubling its lineup. Analysts expect sales to grow by 82% this year, and another 91% next year, due to demand for Lucid’s SUV platform. But with a start price of nearly $100,000, the Gravity still prevents Lucid from tapping the mass market. That could all change in 2026, however, when the company expects to launch several new vehicles, all priced under $50,000.

There’s a lot of risk to this story. Ramping production of several new models over the next 12 to 24 months will put a strain on Lucid’s already constrained financial position. When it comes to raw growth potential, Lucid tops the list of “next Tesla” candidates. But for balancing growth and value, the next stock is actually my favorite right now.

RIVN PS Ratio data by YCharts. PS = price-to-sales.

My favorite electric car stock this decade

Despite Lucid’s rapid expected growth rates in 2025, Rivian (RIVN 2.71%) remains my top electric vehicle stock this decade. This story is a bit more complicated, but if you dig in, it’s clear that Rivian shares provide a huge opportunity for patient shareholders.

Like Lucid, Rivian only has two luxury models on the market, with high initial price points: The R1S and the R1T. But in roughly 12 months, the company expects to start production on three new affordable vehicles — the R2, R3, and R3X. By all accounts, Rivian is further along in getting its lower-priced vehicles to market than Lucid. Plus, the company has billions in additional cash with a current sales base more than five times that of Lucid. So which company is more likely to see its new affordable models get to market? I believe Rivian is better positioned.

Right now, Rivian’s valuation is far below Lucid’s, largely due to lackluster expected sales growth this year. But when you look beyond the next 12 months, I expect these growth rates to pick up considerably when its new models hit the roads. While more patience will be required for Rivian, this business has the best long-term growth potential at a reasonable valuation today.