CleanCore in $175M Deal to Establish a Dogecoin Treasury; Shares Tumble 60%

Shares of CleanCore Solutions (ZONE) sharply plunged on Tuesday after the company announced a $175 million private placement to establish a digital asset treasury focused on popular memecoin dogecoin (DOGE).

The transaction involved the sale of 175 million pre-funded warrants at $1 each. More than 80 investors participated, including big-name digital asset firms Pantera, GSR and FalconX. Proceeds will be used to acquire DOGE for CleanCore’s treasury and support corporate operations.

The offering is scheduled to close September 4, pending regulatory approvals.

The company's stock dropped around 60% following the news.

The initiative to make DOGE the firm's primary treasury reserve asset was also backed by the Dogecoin Foundation and House of Doge, the foundation's corporate arm, the press release said.

With the deal, the firm also announced to name Alex Spiro, partner at the New York office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan who represented clients including Elon Musk, as chairman of the board effective immediately, confirming a Fortune report last week. Dogecoin Foundation director Timothy Stebbing joined the board, while Marco Margiotta, CEO of House of Doge, will take on the role of chief investment officer. The House of Doge and digital asset investment manager 21Shares will advise CleanCore on treasury management.

CleanCore is the latest entrant to an increasingly crowded field of public firms pivoting to establish cryptocurrency treasuries. These firms raise funds on capital markets to accumulate digital assets like bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and (SOL). Some firms are moving out to risk curve to incorporate smaller, more volatile altcoins.

The company said it aims to anchor DOGE as a legitimate asset for payments and tokenization, moving beyond its meme origins. CleanCore also said it may pursue staking-like yield features with exchanges to generate returns on its holdings.

Read more: Strategy Added Another 4,408 Bitcoin for $450M Last Week