Latest news with #Halabu

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.