BNC, a subsidiary of CEA Industries, purchased 200,000 BNB for $160 million.
The deal is related to the strategy of creating an institutional BNB treasury.
The company plans to increase investments to $1.25 billion.
CEA Industries, through its subsidiary BNC, acquired 200,000 $BNB for $160 million. With this deal, it became the largest publicly traded firm by assets in the mentioned cryptocurrency. The purchase was conducted through the BNB Network Company division, which manages treasury assets.
The shift in focus to the cryptocurrency market has become part of the firm's new corporate strategy. Last month, CEA Industries, previously producing nicotine vapes, changed its ticker from VAPE to BNC and announced the establishment of a treasury based on BNB. To finance this initiative, the company raised $500 million in a private placement with the participation of 10X Capital and YZi Labs led by Changpeng Zhao.
BNC noted that the attractiveness of BNB is due to a deflationary token burning model, increased on-chain activity, and potential catalysts, including the possibility of launching a spot ETF. Moreover, the company believes that the asset's ecosystem is not sufficiently represented in the U.S. institutional market.
The company plans to continue purchases until the initial capital is exhausted and is considering raising another $750 million. This will increase the total investment in BNB to $1.25 billion.
The trend of corporate crypto treasuries is gradually moving beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, analysts noted. Recently, Nano Labs and Windtree joined the list of companies investing in BNB, having invested about $500 million.
Being the native token of the BNB Chain blockchain, the mentioned asset ranks fifth by market capitalization. According to CoinMarketCap, its price has increased by 1.35% to $813 over the past day. The asset's market capitalization is $113.2 billion.