Tom Lee-backed penny stock surges 5,700% after surprising investment

The shares of Eightco Holdings (Nasdaq: OCTO) surged more than 5,700% on Sep. 8 after the company announced a Worldcoin treasury strategy.

The company said it raised $250 million through a private placement to adopt WLD as a primary asset for its corporate treasury reserve.

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BitMine Immersion (NYSE: BMNR), the leading Ethereum treasury firm led by Tom Lee, also made an additional investment of $20 million to support the initiative.

WLD is a cryptocurrency that powers OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s blockchain project, which uses iris scanning to verify identity and grant access to its crypto ecosystem — a feature heavily criticized for allegedly violating user privacy.

Eightco Holdings also announced the appointment of the popular Wall Street analyst Dan Ives as its new chairman. Ives has been an analyst at Wedbush Securities whose hot takes on technology and AI are much sought after.

Ives said, “Sam Altman and Alex Blania began this incredible journey, and the future of AI requires World to lead the way in this AI-driven Fourth Industrial Revolution. World is the internet of people. While AI gives us infinite abundance, World gives us infinite trust and authentication.”

Tom Lee said,

“BitMine wants to support and back innovative projects that create value for the Ethereum. As an ERC-20 native token, World is aligned with Ethereum.”

OCTO, which closed at $1.45 on Sep. 5, opened at $18.61 today following the announcement. The stock jumped more than 5,885% during the day as it hit an intraday high of $82.98. After the strong rally, the stock cooled down and closed at $45.

The offering is expected to close on Sep. 11, following which the company intends to change the Nasdaq trading symbol of its stock to ORBS.

If you had invested $1,000 in OCTO at Friday’s close ($1.45), you’d have about $12,834 at Monday’s open ($18.61), as much as $57,228 if you sold at the intraday high ($82.98), or roughly $31,034 at the close ($45.00).

This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Sep 8, 2025, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.