ORBS makes strategic investments in defining companies, including OpenAI and Beast Industries.
Bitmine (NYSE: BMNR) Chairman Tom Lee Joins Board of Directors to Support ORBS’ Long-Term Investment Strategy
ARK Invest joins ORBS as a partner, offering strategic advice and proprietary market intelligence; allocates $25 million to ORBS
Brett Winton, chief futurist at ARK Invest, joins as an advisor to the ORBS board
Payward, the parent company of global crypto platform Kraken, is committing $25 million to ORBS
The company is supported by a group of strategic and institutional investors, including: Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), MOZAYYX, ARK Invest, Payward, World Foundation, Coinfund, Discovery Capital Management, FalconX, Pantera, GSR, etc.
EASTON, Pa. , March 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Eightco Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ORBS) (“ORBS” or the “Company”) today announced $125 million in new funding commitments with $75 million from Bitmine (NYSE: BMNR) with a minimum commitment of $25 million. Payward, the parent company of global crypto platform Kraken, has also committed $25 million to ORBS. The capital supports the expansion of ORBS to invest in next-generation artificial intelligence technologies, blockchain infrastructure and global digital consumer platforms.
ORBS also announced that it has closed its initial strategic investment of $50 million in OpenAI and $25 million in MrBeast and Beast Industries. These investments position ORBS as a hub at the center of key frontier AI technologies and content creation, expanding its portfolio to include ownership stakes in leading global innovators. The company continues to maintain Worldcoin, founded by Sam Altman, and Ethereum as a long-term believer in the ERC-20 protocol.
The company has appointed Tom Lee, the chairman of Bitmine, to join the board of directors of ORBS. Brett Winton, Chief Futurist at ARK Invest, serves as an advisor to the ORBS Board. Dan Ives is stepping down as chairman of ORBS.
“Bitmine has invested in ORBS because we believe that this company is at the center of the most important needs and future developments of AI,” said Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine and newly appointed independent director of ORBS. “For me, there is a great synergy between Proof of Human (Worldcoin), the foundational models of OpenAI and the connection with the world’s largest content creator MrBeast. And the ARK investment team, known for their pioneering work in identifying exponential opportunities, will increase the synergy and innovation in this company.”
The world is built to solve the critical problem of distinguishing between real people and bots in the era of AI. About the creation of World, Sam Altman noted, “We needed some way to identify, to validate people in the age of AGI. We needed a way to know what content was human-made, by AI. We wanted a way for people to remain special and central in a world where we wanted to distribute a lot of AI-driven content on the Internet.
“ORBS is leading a unique initiative at the intersection of AI, blockchain and creator platforms,” said Kathy Wood, Founder, CEO and CIO of ARK Invest. “At ARK Invest, we focus on technologies that have the potential to transform the global economy. We are excited to partner with ORBS to support their strategy as these technologies continue to scale over the next decade.”
“Technological revolutions follow power law dynamics: a small number of platforms capture a disproportionate share of value. ORBS positions itself at the intersection of three such complex networks, AI, cryptographic infrastructure and global digital distribution,” said Arjun Sethi, CEO of Kraken and Payward. “The capital deployed in this convergence has the potential to scale non-linearly, and we are pleased to support a strategy designed to capture this asymmetry.”
ABOUT EIGHTCO HOLDINGS INC.
Eightco Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ORBS ) is expanding its mission to own stakes in leading AI model, OpenAI, and leading content creator, MrBeast, and Beast Industries. Through strategic investments and partnerships, ORBS is at the intersection of blockchain infrastructure, artificial intelligence and next-generation platforms. The company is focused on creating long-term shareholder value by aligning capital with transformative technologies that will shape the future of humanity.
For more details, follow X:
https://x.com/iamhuman_orbs
ABOUT BITMINE
Bitmine (NYSE AMERICAN: BMNR) is a Bitcoin miner operating in the US. The company leverages its excess capital to become the world’s leading Ethereum Treasury, implementing an innovative digital asset strategy for institutional investors and public market participants. Following the philosophy of “5% alchemy”, the company is committed to using ETH as a reserve asset of its treasury, using native protocol level activities, including decentralized financial mechanisms. The company will launch MAVAN (Made-in America VAlidator Network), a special infrastructure for Bitmine assets, in the 1st quarter of 2026.
For more details, follow X:
https://x.com/bitmnr
https://x.com/fundstrat
ABOUT THE WONDERFUL INDUSTRY
Beast Industries is an entertainment, consumer products and CPG company founded and led by YouTube creator, entrepreneur and philanthropist Jimmy Donaldson, also known as MrBeast. A global entertainment force, MrBeast is the most subscribed channel on YouTube with over 450 million subscribers and over 5 billion monthly views across all channels. Recognized as the #1 creator on the Forbes (2023) list of top creators and featured on the TIME 100 list and the first TIME100 Climate, Donaldson has built Beast Industries into a platform that includes innovative content, record-breaking competition formats and some of the fastest-growing brands in history, including CPGast. The company also drives large-scale social impact through initiatives such as #TeamTrees, #TeamSeas, #TeamWater and Beast Philanthropy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has provided more than 20 million free meals worldwide and funded critical infrastructure projects. At its core, Beast Industries combines fun, innovation and purpose to create cultural IP, market-leading products and lasting change.
ABOUT THE LINK
Payward, Inc. is a unified financial infrastructure platform that powers a family of products that drive an open, global financial system. Built on a unified shared architecture, Payward enables clients to hold, trade, monetize, pay and invest without friction or fragmentation across asset classes.
In fact, Payward provides the infrastructure layer behind Kraken and a growing suite of targeted products, including NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks and CF Benchmarks.
Payward separates infrastructure from product expression. Each product level is designed for a specific customer segment, configuration mode and use case while operating in the same global context:
- A global liquidity pool
- A single risk and margin engine
- A deposit and settlement system
- A compliance and licensing framework
This collaborative architecture allows Payward to scale efficiently, launch new products at lower marginal cost, and serve diverse global markets while maintaining consistent risk management, regulatory integrity, and operational stability.
For more information about Payward, please visit www.payward.com.
Forward-looking statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this press release other than statements of historical fact may be considered forward-looking. Words such as “plans”, “expects”, “will”, “anticipate”, “continue”, “expand”, “progress”, “develop”, “believe”, “guide”, “target”, “may”, “remain”, “project”, “outlook”, “anticipate”, “information” and other words, meanings and expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such terms. they get Forward-looking statements are based on management’s current beliefs and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement as a result of various factors, including, without limitation: the Company’s inability to manage or operate a private business in which the Company is not a controlling shareholder; the risk of losing or reducing the company’s strategic investments; the Company’s ability to maintain compliance with Nasdaq’s listing requirements; unexpected costs, charges or expenses that reduce the Company’s capital reserves or otherwise delay the deployment of capital; the ability to raise adequate capital to finance or scale business operations or strategic investments; regulatory changes, future legislation and regulations that adversely affect digital assets or the adoption of artificial intelligence; and changing state and government positions on digital assets or areas related to artificial intelligence. Given these risks and uncertainties, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. For a discussion of other risks and uncertainties and other important factors, any of which could cause Eightco’s actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements herein, see Eightco’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including risk factors and other disclosures in its Annual Report to the SEC-K in its annual report on SEC-K filing on Form 125. and subsequent publicly available filings with the SEC. All information in this press release is as of the date of publication, and Eightco undertakes no obligation to update this information or publicly announce the results of any revisions to any statement to reflect future events or developments, except as required by law.
