Flora Growth, a cannabis company listed on the Nasdaq, is embarking on a $401 million initiative to support Zero Gravity (0G). This blockchain-based project aims to create a decentralized infrastructure for artificial intelligence.
This financial backing comes through a private placement, which includes $35 million in cash and $366 million in digital assets, largely in the form of 0G tokens. According to a recent announcement, as part of this agreement, Flora Growth will rebrand itself as ZeroStack, while keeping its existing Nasdaq ticker symbol, FLGC. Details here.
DeFi Development Corp. (DFDV), a treasury company specializing in Solana (SOL), spearheaded the funding round. Other participants included Hexstone Capital and Carlsberg SE Asia PTE Ltd, along with firms like Dao5, Abstract Ventures, and Dispersion Capital.
Joseph Onorati, CEO of DFDV, stated, “We are excited to collaborate with FLGC on this fundraising effort and anticipate a strong partnership between 0G and Solana.” Flora Growth will also hold a portion of its treasury in SOL tokens.
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Zero Gravity Achieves Milestone: Training a Massive AI Model
This significant investment is intended to boost 0G’s AI infrastructure capabilities. The platform has already successfully trained an AI model with 107 billion parameters using distributed clusters, surpassing previous benchmarks achieved by major tech companies like Google. 0G reports a substantial 357x improvement in efficiency compared to existing distributed AI frameworks.
Daniel Reis-Faria, the incoming CEO, highlighted that this treasury initiative offers institutional investors an opportunity to gain equity exposure to an AI infrastructure that is “transparent, verifiable, and privacy-focused.”
The deal is expected to close by September 26th, subject to shareholder approval. Certain investors will receive pre-funded warrants linked to the use of 0G tokens as part of the offering.
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Standard Chartered Predicts Consolidation Among Digital Asset Treasury Firms
Standard Chartered recently issued a warning that digital asset treasury (DAT) firms are experiencing increasing difficulties due to a sharp decline in market net asset values (mNAVs) across the sector. The boom in DATs, initially fueled by Strategy’s successful Bitcoin accumulation approach, has slowed. This slowdown is exposing smaller players to greater risks as their valuations decrease.
Generally, an mNAV above 1 allows firms to issue new shares and expand their crypto holdings. However, many DATs are now trading below this level, limiting their access to affordable capital and hindering further growth.
The bank anticipates consolidation within the sector, with larger and better-funded companies like Strategy and Bitmine likely to emerge as leaders. Smaller firms facing challenges due to suppressed mNAVs may become attractive acquisition targets.
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