Shares of AgriFORCE Growing Systems surged more than 200% at Monday’s open after the agricultural technology company announced a pivot into an AVAX digital asset treasury model.
The company will rebrand as AVAX One and aims to raise $550 million to build a treasury centered on Avalanche (AVAX), the native token of the Avalanche blockchain.
According to a Monday press release, the company’s goal is to accumulate more than $700 million in AVAX tokens. As a long-term strategy, it also plans to acquire and integrate revenue-generating fintech businesses into the Avalanche network.
The funding strategy includes a $300 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) deal, subject to shareholder approval, and plans to raise another $250 million through equity-linked instruments.
Hivemind Capital is leading the raise, joined by more than 50 backers ranging from institutional firms to crypto-native players, including ParaFi, Galaxy Digital, Kraken, Big Brain Holdings, and FalconX.
The Company’s advisory board will be led by Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital and a prominent crypto investor, and Brett Tejpaul, the head of Coinbase Institutional.
Matt Zhang, Founder of Hivemind Capital and nominated chairman of the board at the company, told Cointelegraph that Avalanche was “a very deliberate choice.” He said his team had turned away “four other blockchain foundations, and that they “chose Avalanche for one reason: its relentless focus on on-chain finance and world-class partnerships.”
Zhang also noted that staking, the act of locking up crypto to secure a blockchain and earn yield in the process, played an important role in Avalanche's selection.
“Staking is what makes us a real, operating business from day one, not just a passive treasury. It’s a critical part of our strategy. Based on our model, the revenue generated from staking makes the business profitable from the start,” Zhang said.
AVAX was trading at $31.76 at time of writing, according to CoinGecko. At that price, a $700 million investment would amount to about 22 million AVAX tokens. With validators currently earning an annual percentage yield (APY) of about 6.7% from staking, the position could generate around $46.9 million in yearly rewards.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after the Avalanche Foundation revealed plans to raise $1 billion for digital asset treasury companies and AVAX accumulation initiatives.
AGRI stock surged from a $2.41 close on Friday to open at $7.30 on Monday, according to data from Yahoo Finance, retracing to finish the trading day on Nasdaq at $5.73, rising by 137%.
Related: Scaramucci to tokenize $300M in assets, nearly doubling Avalanche’s RWA base
From gaming to ETFs, Avalanche records fresh growth signals
Avalanche is an open-source blockchain launched in 2020 by Cornell University professor Emin Gün Sirer. The network is designed to support smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps), with a strong focus on DeFi.
One area where Avalanche has gained traction is Web3 gaming. In June, the chain surpassed 1 million daily transactions twice in a week, primarily driven by activity from MapleStory Universe, a blockchain-based version of the popular game.
Investor interest in AVAX has also been building. In February, Sweden-based asset manager Vitune introduced a crypto exchange-traded product (ETP), exposing Finnish investors to AVAX and Cardano (ADA).
The following month, global investment firm VanEck filed with the SEC to launch an Avalanche exchange-traded fund (ETF). In August, Grayscale Investments sought to convert its existing Avalanche Trust into an ETF.
At the end of August, Avalanche led all blockchains in transaction growth, rising over 66% in one week and recording over 11.9 million transactions.
The user boost came on the heels of an announcement that the US Department of Commerce plans to post real gross domestic product (GDP) data on several blockchains, including Avalanche.
Although AVAX remains far below its all-time high of $144.96 set in November 2021, data from CoinGecko shows the token has climbed around 24% in the past two weeks.
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