Tea company pivots to cryptocurrency
Long Island Iced Tea juices its stock with shift to virtual currency tech
Shares of Long Island Iced Tea soared Thursday after the company said it would rename itself Long Blockchain and refocus on the technology developed as the accounting method for Bitcoin virtual currency.
The Farmingdale, N.Y., company’s stock closed 183% higher at $6.91 a share, making it the latest company whose financial fortunes have been boosted by recent investor and consumer eagerness for all things cryptocurrency.
The company has been operating in the red, and its shares closed 17.3% higher at $2.44 on Wednesday.
Long Island Iced Tea in a Thursday news release said the company would maintain its focus on the ready-to-drink segment of the beverage industry and continue to operate wholly-owned subsidiary Long Island Brand Beverages.
At the same time, the company said it was exploring potential partnerships, investments or acquisitions involving a blockchain software developer and a London-based institutional provider of foreign exchange services that it said is building blockchain and digital cryptocurrency solutions for financial markets. Long Island Iced Tea also said it had sought Securities and Exchange Commission approval to withdraw the proposed $10 million public underwriting offer it had filed on Nov. 11. Company officials did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. The SEC declined to discuss the company, and a spokesman for Nasdaq, the financial exchange that lists the firm’s shares, could not immediately be reached. Other companies have similarly benefitted, at least in the short term, by refocusing on the technology known as blockchain — a digitized and decentralized public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions.
Shares of the previously money-losing company known as Bioptix rose in recent weeks after it rebranded itself as Riot Blockchain. In an SEC filing on Tuesday, the company said it has entered agreements to sell $37 million in securities to accredited investors at a purchase price of $22.50 per unit.
California-based furniture design company Nova Lifestyle on Wednesday announced it had launched a new subsidiary called I Design Blockchain Technology “to enhance product sales through a Blockchain technology-empowered digital platform.”
Many financial managers have advised caution investing in the budding new entrants to blockchain technology.
“When this ends, do not be the last one in,” Orlando-based investment adviser Gary Kaltbaum warned Thursday. “That’s our motto. That’s my motto.”