How do you magically transform $4 million into $8.5 billion? It's beyond the dreams of even the most optimistic gamblers, but it's possible in the world of cryptocurrency treasury companies, which offer a lucrative casino.

Eightco is the latest lucky stock. A previously obscure company with offerings including corrugated packaging, it soared 3,000% Monday on plans to amass Worldcoin -- the crypto token associated with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's project to scan every human's eyeballs to allow people to verify their identity online.

The aim is to imitate Strategy -- formerly known as MicroStrategy -- which wrote the crypto-treasury playbook of issuing shares and debt to hoard digital currency. It now holds around $72 billion worth of Bitcoin.

Why have crypto-treasury plays become so popular? Investors who want exposure to digital tokens can purchase them directly via cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase. Those who prefer not to hold crypto itself can invest in exchange-traded funds like the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF. Still, the same frenzy isn't evident in those stocks.

The magic ingredient is leverage. Strategy is worth more than the value of its Bitcoin holdings. So long as the premium endures, the company can add more Bitcoin per share. Eightco takes that to the extreme -- at Monday's closing price, its shares were valued at roughly 30 times book value.

Backing such a stock is risky. Similar crypto-treasury plays on smaller tokens such as Dogecoin have already crashed. Even the biggest player seems potentially vulnerable -- Strategy's multiple of its net asset value has shrunk by around half from its peak. If the premium collapses, the crypto-treasury boom could go with it. That might be part of the reason Strategy wasn't added to the S&P 500 in its quarterly rebalancing last week.

Ultimately the spike in Eightco stock is a reminder a major attraction of crypto continues to be the chance of a bet paying off big. Just don't mistake it for investing.

-- Adam Clark

***

EchoStar's Spectrum Sale Gives Investors a Way In At SpaceX

Elon Musk is pushing further into the mobile phone business through a $17 billion deal to buy spectrum licenses from EchoStar, a satellite and wireless company. The new licenses will be a significant boost to Starlink, Musk's satellite company, allowing it to better connect cellphones in rural areas.

   -- SpaceX owns Starlink. SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell said the EchoStar 
      transaction will boost its mission to "end mobile dead zones around the 
      world." But it also resolves a regulatory issue for EchoStar, which faced 
      criticism for not using the spectrum it was given effectively. 
 
   -- EchoStar's Boost Mobile subscribers will now have access to Starlink's 
      Direct-to-Cell service in remote areas. The deal is evenly divided 
      between cash and SpaceX shares, and the privately held commercial space 
      company will fund approximately $2 billion in cash interest payments on 
      EchoStar debt. 
 
   -- SpaceX already has an agreement with T-Mobile for satellite to cell 
      service. New Street Research analyst Blair Levin expects the 
      T-Mobile/SpaceX relationship will continue as anticipated near-term but 
      wonders whether the companies' longer-term ambitions will conflict. 
 
   -- EchoStar last month agreed to sell some other spectrum licenses to AT&T 
      for approximately $23 billion. Monday's deal values EchoStar stock at 
      about $23 billion, which means the SpaceX stake, assuming the deal closes, 
      represents more than 35% of EchoStar's market value. 

What's Next: For investors, getting a hold of SpaceX stock has been a challenge, usually requiring private market access and accreditation. But through this transaction, and EchoStar's holding of SpaceX stock, EchoStar could become the vehicle for getting a piece of Musk's rocket company.

-- Al Root, Nate Wolf, and Janet H. Cho

***

StubHub Revives IPO Plans in Latest Unicorn Listing

StubHub, the online and mobile ticket reseller that was once owned by eBay, has revived plans for an initial public offering, launching a roadshow with plans to raise more than $850 million for a valuation of $9.3 billion. It's just the latest in a spate of IPOs lined up in the coming weeks.

   -- The company plans to offer more than 34 million shares in a range of $22 
      to $25 a share, aiming to begin trading the week of Sept. 15. That's 
      after six IPOs planned for this week, including listings of fintech 
      Klarna and crypto brokerage firm Gemini. 
 
   -- It has been planning to go public for three years, but postponed those 
      plans in the summer of 2024 and again in April amid market turmoil and a 
      subdued environment for new listings. 
 
   -- StubHub generates nearly all of its revenue from fees on ticket sales, 
      with 2024 sales of nearly $1.8 billion. Revenue rose 3% in the first half 
      of this year, but the company isn't profitable. It reported a loss of 
      $2.8 million last year and another $76 million in red ink in the first 
      half of 2025. 
 
   -- The ticket resale business is highly competitive. Concert venue owner and 
      promoter Live Nation operates a secondary sales market, and privately 
      held SeatGeek and Vivid Seats, which went public through a merger with a 
      special purpose acquisition company in 2021, are also rivals. 

What's Next: StubHub was co-founded by Eric Baker, its current CEO. It has been around since 2000, but Baker left the business after a falling out with his fellow co-founder before the eBay deal and founded Viagogo, now StubHub's owner. Baker will have approximately 87.8% stake in StubHub's voting stock.

-- Paul R. La Monica

***

Pfizer Tees Up Effectiveness of Covid Shot Amid Vaccine Scrutiny

Dramatic changes to vaccine regulation wrought by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are making this year's launch of the updated Covid-19 shots the rockiest in years, with sharply narrowed approvals creating uncertainty about who can get the new shots. But Pfizer says the shots work well.

   -- Kennedy has been particularly critical of the messenger RNA-based 
      Covid-19 vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna. In August, the Food 
      and Drug Administration dramatically narrowed their approval only for 
      people over age 65 and younger people who are at high risk. 
 
   -- Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced trial results that show their 
      new shot offers good protection against the virus. Half of the patients 
      were 18 to 64 who were at high risk of severe Covid-19. The trial is 
      ongoing, with additional blood to be drawn and tested later. 
 
   -- Pfizer and BioNTech didn't offer detailed results from the trial, which 
      is the first available clinical data on the new shots. The FDA approved 
      the vaccine in late August based on preclinical data on the updated shots 
      and on data on the older versions of the Pfizer shot. 
 
   -- They said the latest vaccine elicited a robust immune response against a 
      strain of Covid-19 and that the safety profile of the vaccine was 
      consistent with previous studies with no new safety concerns identified. 

What's Next: Accessibility and insurer coverage for this year's shots are still in question. There could be answers at a meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory committee, whose members were handpicked by Kennedy. Many of them are opposed to mRNA-based vaccines. The meeting begins Sept. 18.

-- Josh Nathan-Kazis

***

Nasdaq Joins Push to Bring Future of Trading Into Present

Nasdaq wants to bring the future of trading into the present -- and the exchange operator is pushing to make it happen, pitching digitized assets for faster and seamless transactions in a proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

   -- While the SEC declined to comment, Nasdaq is just the latest financial 
      firm to want to launch securities that are "tokenized," a buzzword these 
      days in the world of trading. Crypto brokerage Coinbase also wants to 
      offer tokenized stocks, bonds, and gold, as do Gemini, Kraken, and 
      Robinhood. 
 
   -- The group even wants to dip into tokens for private companies such as 
      Elon Musk's SpaceX and Sam Altman's OpenAI. Nasdaq's president Tal Cohen 
      said in a LinkedIn post that integrating tokenization and blockchain 
      technology in traditional market infrastructure presents an extraordinary 
      opportunity. 
 
   -- Investors believe the SEC, under new Chair Paul Atkins, will be far more 
      willing to sign off on initiatives related to digital assets because of 
      the Trump administration's pro-crypto stance. 
 
   -- Earlier this year, NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange announced plans 
      to work with Circle Internet Financial to use its USDC stablecoin and 
      tokenized money market offering, US Yield Coin, to develop new products. 

What's Next: Nasdaq's Cohen said the integrated model will "ensure" tokenized securities trade as regular securities, "safeguarding both investors' rights and the systemic stability of our markets through tested, resilient infrastructure."

-- Paul R. La Monica

***

-- Newsletter edited by Liz Moyer, Patrick O'Donnell, Rupert Steiner

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 09, 2025 06:37 ET (10:37 GMT)

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