A group of hedge fund executives, including former Coral Capital Holdings partners Patrick Horsman, Joshua Kruger, and Johnathan Pasch, are planning to raise $100 million to purchase Binance's BNB tokens through a Nasdaq-listed shell company. This shell company will be renamed Build & Build Corporation and will accumulate BNB as its primary treasury asset.
This initiative represents the first instance of a publicly traded company adopting BNB as a reserve currency, thereby providing stock investors with indirect exposure to the token. The move aligns with a growing trend where corporations hold bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as treasury reserve assets, with publicly-listed companies currently holding approximately 834,779 BTC valued at over $83.8 billion, according to BitcoinTreasuries data.
BNB was originally launched as a Binance loyalty token but now operates independently as the native token of the BNB Smart Chain. The Build & Build Corporation’s plan draws inspiration from similar corporate treasury strategies involving Bitcoin. However, BNB's perception remains closely tied to Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), who recently pled guilty to federal charges in November 2023.
Despite powering one of the most active blockchains, BNB has underperformed relative to peers like Cardano and Tron over the past year, due largely to regulatory scrutiny and investor skepticism regarding centralization and governance opacity. This $100 million buy initiative is a significant experiment aiming to reposition BNB as an institutional-grade treasury asset, potentially isolating it from negative narratives linked to Binance.