Original author: TechFlow
Reprinted from: Oliver, Mars Finance
Question MicroStrategy, understand MicroStrategy, become MicroStrategy. Since MicroStrategy first incorporated Bitcoin (BTC) into its asset reserves in 2020, more and more publicly traded companies in the US and even global enterprises have followed suit, and holding tokens has become an obvious trend of stock-coin integration. By 2025, the number of companies holding crypto assets had surged from single digits to dozens.
However, this trend of companies holding tokens has diverged into multiple different currents: Bitcoin remains a safe choice due to its strongest consensus; Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) have attracted many followers due to their widely recognized fundamentals; now, this trend of companies buying tokens has even extended to the smaller market cap altcoin field, such as $FET from Fetch.ai and $TAO from Bittensor in the AI sector.
Looking back at history, ETH fell about 26.7% in a single day in June 2022, and SOL dropped 43% in November 2022 due to the FTX bankruptcy, while the vulnerability of AI coins is even more apparent—such as the emergence of the DeepSeek open-source AI model, which triggered a collective pullback of market on-chain AI Agent tokens. The larger market caps of FET and TAO have had volatility of about 15% and 18% respectively over the past 30 days.
Is it feasible for public companies to allocate these higher volatility altcoins?
Who is laying out AI coins?
To answer this question, we might as well examine which companies have been laying out these AI tokens, as well as the strategies and risks behind them.
1. Interactive Strength (TRNR): Buy FET, fitness + AI leap
Interactive Strength is a NASDAQ-listed company that primarily sells professional fitness equipment and related digital fitness services, owning two brands: CLMBR and FORME. Simply put, it sells hardware devices like fitness mirrors and climbing machines, supplemented by corresponding fitness courses and digital platforms.
Latest data shows that the company's market capitalization is approximately $8.4 million. On June 11, the company announced plans to invest $500 million to buy $FET tokens as part of its crypto strategic reserves, intending to use these tokens to support AI-driven fitness products. The company's CEO Ward stated that choosing FET instead of more widely held assets like Bitcoin reflects the company's plan to integrate Fetch.ai's technology into its product offerings.
Currently, Interactive Strength has secured $55 million in startup funding from ATW Partners and DWF Labs. The source of this funding is what's known as a 'Securities Purchase Agreement', which simply means the company sells stock to the aforementioned investors for cash, and the purchased FET tokens are held by BitGo, a professional custody institution; additionally, the trading method chosen was to buy FET directly from the market rather than through over-the-counter (OTC) transactions.
ATW Partners is a private equity giant, and DWF Labs is a veteran market maker in the crypto space; why are they willing to invest money? The answer may lie in bundled interests.
ATW is interested in TRNR's fitness + AI story, while DWF also has a demand for market making $FET. DWF Labs received 10 million FET from Fetch.ai in September 2024, and then deposited these FET into a trading platform and made a market for FET. After all, if the full $500 million comes through, it could buy about 6.41 million $FET (based on a price of $0.78 per token), and buying directly on the market might have a positive impact on the price in the short term.
After the news was announced, the market reacted positively. On the 11th, TRNR's stock price rose by 15%, and $FET also increased by 7%, although it has since retreated.
However, like some previous companies that bought ETH, the company's total market capitalization is only $8.4 million, making it challenging to raise $500 million to buy FET, and the stock price must be gradually pushed up step by step. If the market cools or the $FET ecosystem fails, this money could be wasted. In the short term, this move seems like a gamble; in the long term, success or failure may depend on whether the AI fitness business has room to land.
2. Synaptogenix (SNPX): Buy TAO, biotech company leveraging big players for a turnaround
Synaptogenix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing products based on Bryostatin-1, primarily for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. The company has a market capitalization of only $5 million. On June 9, the company announced an initial investment of $10 million to purchase $TAO tokens from Bittensor, with plans to gradually increase the purchase amount to $100 million.
As for funding, the initial source is the company's existing cash reserves, and it plans to supplement this with a $550 million Series D convertible preferred stock private placement in the future. Similar to MicroStrategy's strategy, holders initially own preferred shares (which enjoy fixed dividends) and can convert to common stock under specific conditions, such as when the share price reaches an agreed price. SNPX aims to attract institutional capital (hedge funds or family offices) in this way.
The mastermind behind this token purchase is the well-known investor James Altucher.
James is a widely followed entrepreneur, investor, and bestselling author, having founded or invested in over 20 companies across multiple sectors including technology, finance, and media; he was also a hedge fund manager and participated in early investments in many startups. Long before Bitcoin was widely accepted, James publicly promoted the potential of blockchain technology and became an early supporter in this field. In the 2017 crypto boom, he was dubbed the 'Bitcoin prophet' due to extensive online advertising.
In SNPX's business, he is responsible for developing and executing the $TAO investment strategy. Specifically, he has led the token purchase plan, including selecting phased market purchases to optimize costs and screening Bittensor subnets (such as Subnet 1, focused on machine learning tasks) for staking in pursuit of higher returns. Recently, he has also been sharing the logic behind SNPX's purchase of TAO on X, stating that buying SNPX stock is equivalent to buying TAO at half price.
The involvement of big players is crucial as they can leverage their networks to attract private funding and draw institutional investors' attention to SNPX's transformation. Considering the company's motivation, this transformation stems from the bottleneck in its biopharmaceutical business. Clinical data for Bryostatin therapy has not met expectations, and the FDA approval outlook is unclear, leading to prolonged stock price stagnation.
SNPX hopes to achieve asset appreciation through holding $TAO and staking returns. Public news even shows that it plans to rename the company and stock code to reinforce its AI token positioning. After the news on the 9th, SNPX's stock price surged by 40%, reflecting the market's short-term optimism about the transformation.
However, the initial investment of $10 million already exceeds the company's market cap by two times; if the price of $TAO falls below $300, the asset value may shrink by over 25%, posing significant financial risk. The success of the $550 million private placement largely depends on James Altucher's influence and market sentiment. If the funds do not materialize, the transformation plan may be interrupted. The returns from staking $TAO seem less stable compared to the 30-day volatility of 18% for the $TAO token.
This is clearly a high-risk, high-reward comeback battle.
3. Oblong (OBLG): Buy TAO, cautious layout in the IT field
Oblong, Inc. (NASDAQ: OBLG) is a technology service provider focused on IT solutions and video collaboration technology, with its core product Mezzanine being a platform that supports multi-user, multi-device visual collaboration, widely used in corporate meetings and remote collaboration; the company's market capitalization is around $5.3 million.
On June 6, Oblong announced a private placement to raise $7.5 million for purchasing $TAO tokens from Bittensor and participating in its Subnet 0 staking plan. After the announcement, Oblong's stock price initially rose by 12%, but it has since fallen back to $4.04 as of the time of writing.
This placement involves selling approximately 1.98 million shares of common stock or equivalent securities, priced at $3.77 per share, below the current market price. This also means the company is offering stock at a certain discount to attract investors. At this level of funding, based on market prices, it could purchase about 1,890 $TAO tokens, which isn't a large amount.
However, you can view this purchase of TAO as a strategic shift from traditional IT business to the fields of AI and digital assets. The video conferencing solution is a highly competitive area; although the company's Mezzanine platform has a certain market in video collaboration, revenue growth has slowed by about 5% since 2023, mainly affected by competing software such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. The company's CEO Peter Holst stated that the intersection of AI and blockchain is key to future innovation, and $TAO is seen as a potential asset for crypto AI infrastructure, similar to the early institutional adoption phase of Bitcoin.
At the same time, the company plans to achieve asset appreciation through holding $TAO and staking returns, while exploring the development of software tools based on Bittensor, such as AI-driven meeting assistance features. However, Subnet 0 in the TAO subnet primarily focuses on text prompt tasks (such as natural language processing) and other AI directions, and Oblong's choice to stake in this subnet seems somewhat tenuous directly related to the video conferencing business, more so reflecting considerations of staking returns and positioning.
This layout is more of a strategic test to explore the long-term potential of AI tokens.
Risks and rewards coexist
The trend of companies holding tokens has expanded from single assets to diverse choices. However, apart from BTC, the volatility of altcoins is significantly higher than that of BTC. For example, TRNR, with its $8.4 million market capitalization, plans to raise $500 million; if the price of FET drops sharply, high-leverage financing to buy tokens in itself poses a huge financial pressure.
The risk of regulation cannot be ignored either; the biggest consideration for public companies should be compliance. The SEC has classified SOL as a security, while the compliance of AI tokens remains unclear. If regulations tighten, will companies holding tokens face fines or liquidation?
However, legal prohibitions aside, capital has always pursued profit. In the current window period, companies are scrambling to emulate crypto reserve strategies, perhaps having already calculated in their minds: after all, they are small-cap companies, taking advantage of the capital market's gradual embrace of crypto assets to gamble on the higher volatility of altcoins, especially since the AI narrative continues to endure; if it works, the ROI will naturally be very high.
Overall, the allocation of altcoins by public companies resembles a high-risk, high-reward gamble. For small-cap companies, this is a capital game betting on the future, and success or failure will depend on market sentiment, the continuity of narratives, and actual implementation capabilities.
When the altcoin bull market transforms into stocks, both companies and investors should remember: risk is the essence of high-volatility assets, while return is the reward for seizing narratives and timing.
