BNB Network Company (BNC), the treasury management firm of Nasdaq-listed CEA Industries, has poured $160 million to acquire Binance’s BNB token, purchasing 200,000 to claim the title of world's largest corporate holder of the exchange’s native crypto.
The Nasdaq-listed company completed the substantial acquisition Sunday following a $500 million private placement led by 10X Capital in partnership with YZi Labs, the family office of Binance co-founders Changpeng Zhao and Yi He.
The acquisition is a strategic shift toward BNB Chain's growth, with the company targeting an ecosystem it says serves 250 million users but lacks significant institutional presence in U.S. markets.
The company has made steps to execute its crypto-first strategy with David Namdar, co-founder of Galaxy Digital, stepping in as CEO alongside Russell Read, former CIO at CalPERS, and former Kraken director Saad Naja.
"I see it as the chain of the future,” Namdar previously told Decrypt. "It might be the chain for AI and robotics opportunities; There’s a lot of different things that BNB can bring to the table."
BNC shares, previously listed under the ticker VAPE, were up 3.7% at $17.10 as of Monday, after trading between $16.00 and $18.75 during the session, according to Google Finance.
Industry observers are split on the implications, with Annu Shekhawat, global ecosystem lead at Avail, calling it "a pivotal moment" that elevates BNB “from a utility token within the Binance ecosystem to a mainstream treasury-grade asset."
However, Kadan Stadelmann, chief technology officer at Komodo Platform, offered a critical view, telling Decrypt that "our corporate overlords are co-opting crypto."
"These are the entities that will turn crypto into a tool of the elites Bitcoin was meant to disrupt," Stadelmann added, saying that while the move is "bullish in the short-term, it is bearish for everything crypto once represented."
Decrypt has reached out to BNC for comment.
The firm plans to continue deploying its initial treasury capital and may access an additional $750 million through warrant exercises, potentially reaching $1.25 billion in total BNB purchases, it said Sunday in a statement.
BNC also intends to explore revenue generation through staking and DeFi activities within the BNB ecosystem, it said.
When the company first announced its treasury plan last month, shares skyrocketed over 700% at one point, pointing to significant market appetite for BNB exposure through traditional equity markets.
Stadelmann added that "BNB will now be seen as a safe investment for traditional finance," which could attract more institutional adoption but represents "top-down consolidation" rather than true crypto adoption.
The fourth-largest crypto is trading at $823.23, up 1.1% in the last 24 hours, as per CoinGecko.
