Eyecare biotech jumps 19% after stablecoin-focused rebrand

NovaBay Pharmaceuticals was founded in 2000 as a biopharmaceutical company developing eye care products and is now betting big on the Sky protocol and stablecoins.

Shares in NovaBay Pharmaceuticals jumped nearly 19% after the company announced it would change its name to Stablecoin Development Corporation as part of its strategic crypto pivot.

NovaBay Pharmaceuticals CEO Michael Kazley said in a statement on Monday that the company’s plan going forward is to access cash flows within the growing stablecoin economy.

“The name change to Stablecoin Development Corporation reflects our conviction that stablecoins represent the most compelling structural opportunity in digital finance,” he said.

It adds to a wave of companies over the last year that have pivoted to a crypto strategy to improve their fortunes. However, with crypto markets down since October, there are warnings of potential consolidation ahead. 

The company’s stock ticker will change from NBY to SDEV, effective April 3. It has also disclosed that it holds two billion Sky (SKY) tokens as of March 16, representing more than 8% of the total supply.

Shares of NovaBay Pharmaceuticals (NBY) spiked 19% to trade at $1.38 in the trading session following the announcement. 

NovaBay Pharmaceuticals began life in 2000 as a California-based biopharmaceutical company focused on eye care products.

The company disclosed in a January SEC filing that it was changing tactics to operate under an “on-chain holding company framework focused on long-duration participation in protocol-level digital asset ecosystems.” 

As part of the pivot, NovaBay Pharmaceuticals entered into a $134 million private placement backed by Tether Investments, an affiliate of the stablecoin issuer, to buy and hold assets within the SKY protocol ecosystem.

NovaBay Pharmaceuticals has since acquired more than two billion SKY tokens and has generated cumulative staking rewards of 26.6 million SKY tokens. SKY is trading at $0.073 as of Tuesday, according to CoinGecko. 

Under its new framework, the company said it can “hold protocol-aligned digital assets for extended periods in order to participate in protocol-level economic activity.” 

Related: Stablecoin inflows rebound to $1.7B as Washington battles over yield rules

Efforts are also underway to continue buying additional SKY tokens on the open market, according to the announcement.

At this stage, the SKY token is the only digital asset approved under the company’s operating and risk management framework.

However, NovaBay Pharmaceuticals flagged “stablecoins as an increasingly important component of global digital financial infrastructure” and said it has a particular interest in yield-bearing stablecoins.

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Source: CoinTelegraph