Eyenovia has announced that it would use $50 million from its balance to buy HYPE tokens and stake them. The potential addition of crypto to the balance sheet aims to revive the company’s flagging shares. A public trading company, Eyenovia is joining the trend of buying altcoins as crypto reserves, in a bid to revive a weakening share price.
According to reports, the company intends to become a large-scale holder of the token. The company will stake its tokens, hoping to use the opportunity to rebrand the firm. Eyenovia is following the example of firms like Strategy, Metaplanet, Mara Holdings, and other BTC treasury companies, whose shares benefited from the purchases. However, in its case, there is skepticism over the viability of a treasury strategy.
Altcoins remain more unreliable, with limited institutional demand and lower liquidity. Eyenovia itself is inviting warnings, as the company fired 50% of its staff in 2024, following a failed Stage III trial of myopia tech. Eyenovia, which was a digital ophthalmic tech company, will rebrand to Hyperion DeFi, and change its ticker to HYPD. The HYPE treasury will allow the buyer to become one of the top validators for Hyperchain, tapping into the growing trend of perpetual futures DEX trading.
Eyenovia sells its shares through PIPE
The latest HYPE purchase will happen through inflows from accredited investors, in a private placement of equity (PIPE). The stock purchase agreement will offer convertible non-voting preferred stock, convertible into 154M of common stock. The conversion is subject to limitations set by company investors.
The shares will be convertible for $3.35, with an additional option to buy 30.8 million common shares at $3.25. If all these conditions are fulfilled, Eyenovia can raise about $150 million, with no guarantees about the sum or size and value of the purchases. In the short term, the price of EYEN rose to $6.97, rising from a low of $2 in the past month. However, EYEN has lost about 80% of its value in the last 12 months, starting from above $106.
Eyenovia joins the list of companies with no prior ties to crypto that have seen their shares rebound from lows following hints of crypto purchases. Universal Digital was one of the latest companies to announce a similar approach, though again through accumulating BTC. Classover Holdings also drew attention to itself, with a program to purchase SOL for $500M, financed through a recent stock offering.
Other firms include DeFi Dev Corp with a $100M purchase and SOL Strategies with a $67M treasury. The effect on stock prices, in this case, was different, with DeFi Dev Corp. rising to a six-month high, while SOL Strategies trading sideways close to its recent lows.