Nasdaq-listed vape stock surges 600% after 10X Capital and YZi Labs lead $500 million offering to establish BNB treasury

A Colorado-based nicotine company with a market cap of around $60 million is looking to establish the world's largest publicly traded BNB corporate treasury.

CEA Industries (ticker VAPE) and 10X Capital announced the pricing of an oversubscribed and upsized above-the-market PIPE financing, positioning the former to become the largest publicly traded BNB treasury company in the United States.

The offering consists of a common equity PIPE delivering $500 million in gross proceeds ($400 million in cash and $100 million in crypto), plus up to $750 million in cash that may be received from exercised warrants to be issued in the private placement, according to the release.

The BNB treasury strategy will be led by incoming CEO David Namdar, the co-founder of Galaxy Digital; incoming CIO Russell Read, former CIO of CalPERS and CIO of 10X Capital; and Saad Naja, former director at Kraken. 10X Capital will serve as the asset manager of the BNB treasury strategy, with the support of YZiLabs.

"Institutional-grade exposure to BNB is attractive because it is driven by fundamentals rather than speculation," Read stated in the release. "BNB powers one of the largest ecosystems in blockchain — with real network utility across DeFi, payments, and enterprise applications. By creating a treasury vehicle, we're allowing institutions to participate in that growth story in a way that aligns with their need for transparency and long-term value, rather than short-term trading opportunities."

YZi Labs is the family office investment firm belonging to former Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao. Earlier this month, the firm announced "support" for 10X Capital to launch a BNB treasury company they aim to have trading publicly in the U.S.

Corporate treasuries continue adding up

The success of corporate bitcoin treasuries from the likes of Strategy has led to a surge in BTC, ETH, and other altcoin treasuries. CEA Industries plans to build an initial BNB position with plans to significantly scale holdings over the next 12–24 months and evaluate staking, lending, and other opportunities throughout the Binance ecosystem to generate revenue from the BNB treasury.

CEA Industries is a "growth-oriented company" that has focused on building category-leading businesses in regulated consumer markets, including the Canadian nicotine vape industry. The company has a market cap of around $56.3 million, and its stock surged a whopping 650% in Monday's trading session to 65% per share.

BNB, which is the fourth-largest non-stablecoin cryptocurrency by market cap, traded higher by 5% to $838.07 according to The Block's BNB price data.

Over 140 subscribers participated in the offering, led by institutional and crypto-native investors, including YZi Labs, Pantera Capital, Arche Capital, GSR, and Borderless, among others.