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Business Insider
24-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Coeptis Announces Merger with Z Squared, Marking Strategic Pivot into Dogecoin Mining
Former biotech company moves to capitalize on altcoin infrastructure, led by Dogecoin-focused mining operations. Coeptis Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: COEP) has entered into a definitive agreement to merge with Z Squared, a digital asset mining company focused on Dogecoin (DOGE) and other altcoins. The transaction marks a significant change in direction for Coeptis, which is shifting away from its biopharmaceutical business to focus fully on the cryptocurrency mining sector. As part of the deal, Coeptis will acquire Z Squared's large-scale mining operation, including hardware valued at approximately $660 million, hosting agreements across multiple jurisdictions, and proprietary software systems designed to manage energy use and optimize performance in real time. Dogecoin plays a central role in this pivot. Once known mostly for its origins as a joke, DOGE has since become one of the most visible cryptocurrencies, with a market cap of more than $20 billion and a global user base that remains highly active. For COEP, this visibility—and the volatility that comes with it—offers a chance to participate in an altcoin segment that has often remained out of reach for public market investors. A Shift from Biotech to Blockchain Coeptis plans to spin off its biopharma assets into a separate company, allowing its public-facing entity to focus entirely on digital asset infrastructure. Leadership of the combined business will include David Halabu as Chief Executive Officer and Michelle Burke as Chief Operating Officer. Burke, who previously served as COO of Minting Dome Inc., brings experience in managing international mining logistics and hardware deployment. That experience will be key as the company works across different energy markets and regulatory environments. Z Squared's mining strategy is built around flexibility. Rather than relying on a single facility, it partners with hosting providers in multiple regions to take advantage of favorable electricity pricing and local policy conditions. The company's real-time analytics engine helps it adapt to changing power markets by continuously reallocating hash power and managing power curtailment as needed. Opening a New Lane in Public Markets This merger creates a new option for public investors interested in altcoin infrastructure. While most publicly traded mining companies are focused almost entirely on Bitcoin, COEP's entry into Dogecoin and Litecoin mining offers a different kind of exposure. It's a niche that has drawn growing interest, but until now has had limited availability in the public market. Z Squared has also taken steps to address operational pressure points. The company has built internal logistics and repair capabilities that help reduce equipment downtime and extend the lifespan of mining rigs. This approach lowers capital costs and creates a more durable infrastructure in a competitive space where margins can shift quickly. With this merger, COEP is positioning itself to serve a part of the crypto ecosystem that continues to grow in relevance but has been underserved by public market offerings. The move is both a break from its past and a bet on where digital infrastructure is headed next. About Coeptis Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. Coeptis Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: COEP) is a biopharmaceutical and technology company advancing cell therapy platforms for cancer, autoimmune, and infectious diseases. Its pipeline includes clinical-stage and preclinical assets, such as DVX201 and SNAP-CAR, licensed from Deverra Therapeutics and the University of Pittsburgh. In parallel, Coeptis has established a Technology Division focused on operational enhancement through AI-powered marketing and automation tools. Headquartered in Wexford, PA, the company is currently transitioning its business model through a proposed merger with Z Squared to enter the digital asset mining sector. Contact
Business Journals
28-04-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Coeptis to acquire Dogecoin miner Z Squared
Story Highlights Coeptis Therapeutics will merge with Z Squared, a Dogecoin mining company. Coeptis will spin off its biopharmaceutical operations into a separate company. David Halabu will become CEO of the new Dogecoin-focused company. Wexford-based company Coeptis Inc. will merge with a digital mining company and spin off its biopharmaceutical operations into a separate company after the deal is complete. The merger agreement calls for Coeptis to acquire Z Squared Inc., a Dogecoin mining company with Z Squared shareholders receiving Coeptis equity in exchange for 9,000 Dogecoin (DOGE) mining machines. That will lead Coeptis to spin out its biopharmaceuticals into a separate and unrelated company and the remaining company will be known as Z Squared Inc. and focus on mining Dogecoin and other digital assets. 'We are excited to take this step towards our goal of creating the largest publicly traded company in the United States primarily focused on Doge mining,' said David Halabu, CEO of Z Squared who will become CEO of the newly created company. The new company also plans to be listed on the Nasdaq capital market. Coeptis, which was founded in 2017 to develop cell therapies to treat CD38-type cancers, went public Oct. 31, 2021, when it completed a special acquisition corporation merger with Bull Horn Acquisition Corp. The company has been developing those technologies while also working in other areas, including a rebranding in January as Coeptis that involved blockchain and AI after the company did a reverse stock split in December and regained more than $1 a share to remain on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Dogecoin is an open-source peer-to-peer digital currency that employs blockchain technology. It was created by two software engineers in 2013 by what the Dogecoin website calls an 'accidental crypto-movement.' The market value as of Monday is 18 cents per Dogecoin. That's up from 0.0025 in May 2020, according to Google Finance. "We're proud of our strategy to bring retail and institutional audiences alike in the public markets a focused exposure to a DOGE asset that currently has over $20B in market capitalization,' said Halabu. "We believe we have assembled a stellar team that has the requisite expertise and infrastructure." Also part of the executive team will be Michelle Burke, who had been CEO of digital asset miner Minting Dome, as COO. Coeptis President/CEO Dave Mehalick will be leaving the new company's board of directors when the deal closes. "We are excited to bring this opportunity to our shareholders to become involved in the Dogecoin market space, while at the same time being able to remain involved in our biopharmaceutical operations as a result of the contemplated spin out of those operations at closing," Mehalick said in a statement. "I've been deeply engaged in the evolution of blockchain infrastructure and am aligned with the direction the new leadership intends to take the Company." Coeptis has grown over the last several years, licensing cell therapies from Devarra Therapeutics in 2023 and reaching licensing agreements in 2022 and 2023 with the University of Pittsburgh over technology platforms that develop treatments with cancer. The first, reached in May 2022, focuses on SNAP-CAR-T cells that target multiple antigens within the body. The second agreement in October 2023 extended the partnership to include a platform that will help develop NK, or natural killer, cells to treat cancers. It also launched an innovation arm named GEAR Therapeutics in March.
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE Mining Firm Z Squared To Go Public Through Merger
Z Squared, a firm that specializes in mining dogecoin (DOGE), the dog-themed memecoin that was propelled to mainstream recognition by Elon Musk in 2021, is merging with biopharmaceutical company Coeptis (COEP). The merger will enable the resulting company to keep DOGE mining operations going, while Coeptis' pharmaceutical business will be spun out and operated separately. As a result, the firm will become one of the largest publicly-traded companies with a primary focus mining dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies like litecoin (LTC). 'Going public provides us with broader access to capital markets to fuel the growth of our mining operations and pursue additional strategic opportunities we believe will be accretive to shareholders,' Z Squared CEO David Halabu told CoinDesk in an email. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2025. The combined entity will have 9,000 U.S.-based DOGE mining machines. The company declined to share revenue figures with CoinDesk. COEP is down 37.5% on the day. Spun out from Bitcoin (BTC) in 2013, Dogecoin follows a similar Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism, meaning that miners compete to solve an algorithmic problem in order to produce the next block on the blockchain; whoever solves it first is awarded coins for their efforts. At $27 billion in market capitalization, DOGE is currently the eighth largest cryptocurrency, just ahead of Cardano's ADA and Tron's TRX. With the bitcoin mining industry becoming extremely competitive in the last few years, mining operations are seeking new avenues for revenue — by dedicating resources for AI purposes, for example, or mining other cryptocurrencies like dogecoin and litecoin. Bitcoin mining firm BIT Mining (BTCM), for example, announced in December that it had made three times more money mining DOGE and LTC than BTC since it expanded into those cryptocurrencies. Z Squared isn't the first crypto miner to go public using this strategy. Other entities such as Core Scientific (CORZ) and TeraWulf (TERA) employed a similar playbook in 2022. UPDATE (April 25, 18:40 UTC): The article was updated with extra context about bitcoin miners going public through mergers. UPDATE (April 25, 19:40 UTC): The article was updated with information about COEP stock performance. Sign in to access your portfolio
