Is the AI altcoin track also going to have micro-strategies?

Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

Questioning MicroStrategy, understanding MicroStrategy, becoming MicroStrategy.

Since MicroStrategy first incorporated Bitcoin (BTC) into its asset reserves in 2020, an increasing number of publicly traded companies in the U.S. and even global enterprises have followed suit, making holding cryptocurrencies an obvious trend in the stock and crypto markets.

By 2025, the number of companies holding crypto assets has surged from a single-digit figure to dozens.

However, this trend of companies holding coins has diversified into several different currents:

Bitcoin remains a safe choice due to its strongest consensus; Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) have also attracted many followers because of their widely recognized foundations;

Nowadays, this trend of companies buying cryptocurrencies has even extended to the smaller market cap altcoin sector, such as Fetch.ai’s $FET and Bittensor’s $TAO in the AI segment.

Looking back at history, ETH once fell about 26.7% in a single day in June 2022, and SOL dropped by 43% in November 2022 due to the FTX bankruptcy. The vulnerability of AI coins is even more apparent— for example, the emergence of the open-source AI model DeepSeek triggered a collective pullback of on-chain AI Agent tokens in the market. The larger market cap tokens FET and TAO had volatility rates of approximately 15% and 18%, respectively, over the past 30 days.

Is it feasible for listed companies to allocate these more volatile altcoins?

Who is laying out the AI coin?

To answer this question, let’s examine which companies have been laying out these AI tokens, as well as the strategies and risks behind them.

Interactive Strength (TRNR): Buy FET, Fitness + AI Leap Forward

Interactive Strength is a NASDAQ-listed company that primarily sells professional fitness equipment and related digital fitness services, with two brands under its name: CLMBR and FORME.

In simpler terms, it is through selling hardware devices such as fitness mirrors and climbing machines, supplemented by matching fitness courses and digital platforms.

The latest data shows that the company’s market value is approximately $8.4 million.

On June 11, the company announced plans to invest $500 million to buy $FET tokens as part of its cryptocurrency strategic reserve, and the company plans to use these tokens to support AI-driven fitness products.

The company’s CEO Ward stated: Choosing FET over more widely held assets like Bitcoin reflects the company’s plan to incorporate Fetch.ai’s technology into its product offerings.

Currently, Interactive Strength has secured $55 million in startup funding from ATW Partners and DWF Labs.

The source of this funding is the so-called “Securities Purchase Agreement,” which simply means that the company sells shares to the aforementioned investors in exchange for cash, while the purchased FET tokens are held by BitGo, a professional custody institution; additionally, the transaction method chosen was to directly purchase FET from the market rather than through over-the-counter (OTC) trading.

ATW Partners is a private equity giant, while DWF Labs is a seasoned market maker in the crypto space. Why are they willing to spend money?

The answer may lie in the bundling of interests.

ATW is interested in the fitness + AI story of TRNR, and DWF also has demand for market making $FET.

DWF Labs received 10 million FET from Fetch.ai in September 2024, then deposited these FET into the exchange and provided market making for FET.

After all, if the $500 million is in place now, you can buy about 6.41 million $FET (calculated at the current price of $0.78 per coin), and buying it directly in the market may have a positive impact on the price in the short term.

After the news was announced, the market was quite receptive.

On the 11th, the stock price of TRNR rose by 15%, and $FET also increased by 7%, but has since pulled back.

However, like some previous companies that bought ETH, the total market value of this company is only 8.4 million dollars. Raising 500 million to buy FET is not easy and will require gradually increasing the stock price. If the market cools down or the $FET ecosystem fails, this money may go down the drain.

In the short term, this move seems like a gamble; in the long term, success or failure may depend on whether there is room for AI fitness business to take root.

Synaptogenix (SNPX): Buy TAO, the biotech company turns around with the help of big shots.

Synaptogenix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing products based on Bryostatin-1, primarily for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. The company’s market capitalization is only $5 million.

On June 9, the company announced an initial investment of $10 million to purchase Bittensor’s $TAO tokens, with plans to gradually increase the purchase amount to $100 million.

As for the funds, the initial source is from the company’s existing cash reserves, and in the future, it plans to supplement through a $550 million Series D convertible preferred stock private placement. Similar to MicroStrategy’s approach, holders initially possess preferred shares (which enjoy fixed dividends), and under specific conditions, such as when the stock price reaches an agreed price, they can convert to common stock. SNPX uses this to attract institutional funds (hedge funds or family offices).

The mastermind behind this cryptocurrency purchase transaction is the well-known figure in the investment circle, James Altucher.

James is a widely recognized entrepreneur, investor, and bestselling author, having founded or invested in over 20 companies across various fields including technology, finance, and media; he was also a hedge fund manager involved in early investments in several startups.

Before Bitcoin was widely accepted, James publicly promoted the potential of blockchain technology and became an early supporter in this field. During the cryptocurrency boom in 2017, he was referred to as the “Bitcoin Prophet” due to his extensive online advertisements.

In the business of SNPX, he is responsible for formulating and executing the $TAO investment strategy. Specifically, he led the token purchasing program, including selecting phased market purchases to optimize costs and filtering Bittensor subnets (such as Subnet 1, focused on machine learning tasks) for staking to pursue higher yields.

Recently, he has been continuously sharing the logic of trading SNPX to buy TAO on X, stating that buying SNPX stocks is equivalent to buying TAO at half price.

The key to the entry of bigwigs is to attract private equity funds through connections and attract institutional investors to pay attention to the transformation of SNPX, a pharmaceutical company.

From the company’s motivation perspective, the impetus for this transformation stems from the bottlenecks in the biopharmaceutical business. The clinical data for the buparlisib therapy did not meet expectations, the FDA approval prospects are uncertain, and the company’s stock price has been sluggish for a long time.

SNPX hopes to achieve asset appreciation by holding $TAO and staking rewards. Public information reveals that it even plans to rename the company and stock code to strengthen the positioning of the AI token.

After the news on the 9th was made public, SNPX’s stock price surged by 40%, reflecting the market’s short-term optimism about the transformation.

However, the initial investment of $10 million has exceeded twice the company’s market value. If the price of $TAO drops below $300, the asset value may shrink by more than 25%, posing significant financial risks.

The success of the $550 million private placement largely depends on James Altucher’s charisma and market sentiment. If the funds do not materialize, the plan for transformation may be interrupted. The yield from staking $TAO appears unstable compared to the 30-day volatility of the $TAO token at 18%.

This is obviously a high-risk, high-reward comeback.

Oblong (OBLG): Buy TAO, a cautious layout in the IT field

Oblong, Inc. (NASDAQ: OBLG) is a technology service provider focused on IT solutions and video collaboration technology, with its core product Mezzanine being a platform that supports multi-user, multi-device visual collaboration, widely used in corporate meetings and remote collaboration; the company’s market capitalization is around $5.3 million.

On June 6th, Oblong announced that it raised $7.5 million through a private placement of stock to purchase $TAO tokens from Bittensor and participate in its Subnet 0 staking program.

After the announcement, Oblong’s stock price initially rose by 12%, but has since fallen back to $4.04 as of the time of writing.

The current placement involves the sale of approximately 1.98 million shares of common stock or equivalent securities, priced at $3.77 per share, below the current market price. This also means the company is offering shares at a certain discount to attract investors.

With this level of funds, based on current prices, approximately 1890 $TAO tokens can be purchased, which is not a large amount.

However, you can consider this purchase of TAO as a strategic shift from traditional IT business to the AI and digital asset fields.

Video conferencing solutions are a highly competitive field. Although the company’s Mezzanine platform has a certain market presence in the video collaboration space, its revenue growth has slowed by about 5% since 2023, primarily due to the impact of competing software such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

The company’s CEO Peter Holst stated that the intersection of AI and blockchain is the key to future innovation, and $TAO is seen as a potential asset for crypto AI infrastructure, similar to the early institutional adoption phase of Bitcoin.

At the same time, the company plans to achieve asset appreciation by holding $TAO and staking rewards, while exploring the development of software tools based on Bittensor, such as AI-driven meeting assistance features.

However, Subnet 0 in the TAO subnet mainly focuses on AI directions such as text prompt tasks (like natural language processing). Oblong’s choice to stake in this subnet seems a bit forced to say it is directly related to video conferencing business; it is more a consideration of staking rewards and showing intent.

This layout is more of a strategic trial to test the long-term potential of AI tokens.

Risk and return coexist

The trend of enterprises holding cryptocurrencies has expanded from a single asset to a diverse range of options.

However, apart from BTC, the volatility of altcoins is significantly higher than that of BTC. Taking TRNR as an example, its market capitalization of 8.4 million dollars plans to raise 500 million dollars. If the price of FET drops significantly, using high leverage to finance coin purchases is itself a choice that imposes enormous financial pressure.

The risks of regulation cannot be ignored either, and the biggest consideration for listed companies should be compliance. The SEC has classified SOL as a security, while the compliance of AI tokens remains unclear. If regulations tighten, will companies holding tokens face fines or liquidation?

However, the legal department has explicitly prohibited it, as capital tends to seek profit. During the current window period, various companies are competing to imitate cryptocurrency reserve strategies, perhaps already calculating their own gains in their minds:

Ultimately, these are small-cap companies that are trying to seize the opportunity of higher volatility in altcoins as the capital market gradually embraces the wave of crypto assets. Moreover, the AI narrative is enduring; if it succeeds, the ROI will naturally be very high.

Overall, the allocation of altcoins by listed companies resembles a high-risk, high-reward gamble.

For small-cap companies, this is a capital game that bets on the future, and success or failure will depend on market sentiment, the continuity of the narrative, and actual implementation capabilities.

When the altcoin bull market turns into a stock market, both enterprises and investors should keep in mind:

Risk is the essence of high volatility assets, while returns are the rewards of seizing narratives and timing.