Bit Origin makes first purchase following DOGE treasury announcement
Bit Origin, the Nasdaq-listed (BTOG) pork processor turned crypto mining infrastructure firm, has acquired 40.5 million Dogecoin (DOGE), the company’s first purchase of the world’s largest memecoin by market cap since it announced that it was establishing a Dogecoin treasury.
In a press release published on July 17, the Singapore-headquartered company with operations in the United States, Canada and China, set out that it would become the “first publicly listed company on a major US exchange to accumulate Dogecoin as a core asset.”
$500 million treasury funding
The firm outlined that it had entered into agreements with accredited investors, implicating the sale of $400 million in Class A ordinary shares in the company. An additional $100 million unlocked via convertible debt brought funding for its Dogecoin treasury to $500 million.
Jinghai Jiang, Bit Origin’s CEO and Chairman, asserted that “what started as a joke has evolved into a globally liquid asset with a payments utility.” Jiang asserted that very few digital assets match the settlement speed and scale of community that Dogecoin offers.
X Money potential
In particular, he singled out the potential use of DOGE for X Money, a new payment system that is in the process of being established by Elon Musk’s X social media platform. Alongside many proponents of the cryptocurrency, Bit Origin is hoping that Musk will implement the use of DOGE to power X money. Jiang added:
“In an age of broken institutions, Doge embodies a shared culture of optimism and resilience that transcends existing political and financial systems.”
On social media, the company outlined that it believes in “Dogecoin not just as a meme, but as a future payments backbone.”
Having utilized the services of Chardan Capital Markets as a placement agent, the company has already completed an initial closing of $15 million under the convertible debt facility that has been established.
On July 21, Bit Origin published another press release, detailing the acquisition of 40,543,745 DOGE with the memecoin holding having been purchased at an average acquisition cost of $0.2466 per DOGE.
Nearing inflection point for payments
Commenting on the development, Jiang stated:
“From our experience in mining, we understand the tradeoffs that define proof-of-work systems. We see Dogecoin’s utility potential for micropayments nearing an inflection point, driven by renewed developer activity and broader institutional interest in tokenization.”
Dogecoin emerged in December 2013 having been developed by Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus as a joke. The project borrowed much of its code from Bitcoin. Despite having originated as a joke, the project has developed a sizeable community. The digital asset currently holds a market capitalization of $40.5 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Bit Origin rebranded from China Xiangtai Food Co., Ltd. in April 2022. Up until that point, it had been involved in the pork processing business. The company pivoted to crypto mining, partnering with MineOne on a Wyoming mining facility in the United States. The facility was ordered to be shut down by the former Biden administration on the basis of it being a national security risk to have a Chinese project located within a mile of a U.S. Air Force base that houses nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles.
