Weeks after outlining a bold plan to acquire up to $1B in BNB, Nano Labs has made its opening move. The $50 million transaction was executed off-exchange, signaling careful accumulation and a long game with potential macro implications for BNB liquidity.
In a press release on July 3, Nasdaq-listed Nano Labs confirmed it had purchased 74,315 BNB (BNB) tokens in an over-the-counter (OTC) deal, paying an average price of $672.45 per token.
The transaction, totaling roughly $50 million, boosts the company’s combined crypto reserves, which include Bitcoin (BTC) and BNB, to approximately $160 million. The move marks the first major step in Nano Labs’ previously announced strategy to aggressively accumulate BNB, with an ultimate target of holding 5% to 10% of the token’s circulating supply.
Nano Labs’ crypto pivot: a high-stakes bet beyond chipmaking
Nano Labs seems to be rewriting its business model. The company’s $50 million BNB purchase, executed off-exchange, is more than a treasury play; it’s a calculated shift away from the volatile hardware sector that once defined it.
According to Nano Labs’ recent financial report, its iPollo mining chips plummeted 39% in the second half of 2024, while losses narrowed primarily due to cost-cutting, not growth. The company posted just $2.2 million in revenue in the second half of 2024, a 39% decline year-over-year. Its losses, while narrowed, still clocked in at $8.4 million.
But the optics change when viewed through the lens of balance sheet strategy. With R&D slashed by 62% and gross margins propped up by inventory adjustments, the Nano Labs’ pivot to crypto reserves looks less like an experiment and more like a survival strategy.
Nano Labs’ previously unannounced 400 BTC reserve, acquired at a total cost of $40 million, was the first public pivot in that direction. This latest BNB buy expands that playbook and sets the stage for a far more aggressive accumulation push, with the company eyeing up to $1 billion in future purchases through zero-interest convertible notes.
This playbook echoes the one written by Strategy.
But where Strategy bet on Bitcoin’s scarcity, Nano Labs is targeting BNB’s utility. The token underpins one of crypto’s most active blockchains, yet trades at a 20% discount to its peak, weighed down by Binance’s regulatory baggage. If Nano Labs can amass 5-10% of BNB’s supply, it wouldn’t just corner the market—it could force a reevaluation of the token’s institutional viability.
The Institutional BNB playbook
Nano Labs isn’t alone in this wager. Former Coral Capital executives are raising $100 million through a Nasdaq shell company to hoard BNB, aiming to rebrand it as a corporate reserve asset.
Their pitch mirrors Nano Labs’ logic: BNB’s value lies in the BNB Smart Chain’s ecosystem, not Binance’s legal woes. But the risks are stark. Unlike Bitcoin, BNB’s supply remains partly controlled by Binance, with 80 million tokens initially allocated to insiders. The token’s 18% year-to-date gain pales next to Cardano’s (ADA) 45% and Tron’s (TRX) 121%, a gap that reflects lingering skepticism.
