TAO Synergies Inc., a Nasdaq-listed firm, has announced a strategic purchase of 29,899 Bittensor tokens, a decentralized AI-focused cryptocurrency, for a sum of $10 million.
The acquisition, revealed in a press statement on Thursday, was executed at an average cost of roughly $334 per token, inflating the company’s total holdings to about $10 million. As per The Block’s price page, TAO was trading at around $415 on July 18, which means the position has a current valuation of over $12 million, representing a paper gain of around 20% for the firm.
TAO Synergies confirmed that it stakes all procured tokens to amass network rewards on Bittensor, an open platform that compensates contributors for offering machine-learning services. According to the company’s Executive Chairman Joshua Silverman, TAO Synergies will continue to acquire tokens as part of its treasury strategy in the future.
He drew parallels between the growth in the decentralized AI sector and the early adoption curves of the internet and Bitcoin, stating, “Our belief in TAO is fueled by the anticipated continued growth and expansion of decentralized AI, which is gaining significant traction as a portion of total AI spend. We predict that decentralized AI will eventually overtake centralized AI.”
This move is part of a wave of U.S. micro-cap firms establishing crypto treasuries with assets other than Bitcoin. SharpLink Gaming emerged as the largest ether-treasury company, while BitMine Immersion accumulated over $1 billion in ETH earlier this week.
TAO Synergies, formerly a biotech company known as Synaptogenix, rebranded and changed its tickers to TAOX in June to focus on its Bittensor strategy. As of Friday’s pre-market trading data from Yahoo Finance, the firm, which boasts a market capitalization of $13 million, saw its shares rise by over 4%.
