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Nasdaq-listed Shuttle Pharmaceutical Holdings agreed to acquire United Dogecoin Inc. in a merger backed by $11 million in concurrent PIPE financing, creating a publicly traded miner for the leading meme coin. The coin continued to rise Friday, outpacing the weekly gains of Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies.
The transaction will enable United Dogecoin to secure 3,000 ElphaPex mining rigs, according to an announcement. The rigs are expected to deliver a combined hash rate of 43,200 GH/s within 60 days of deployment, representing approximately 1.5% of current global Dogecoin mining capacity.
Shuttle, which owns an AI pharmaceuticals platform, said the rapid deployment timeline reflects a strategy to quickly establish market position as institutional capital enters the Dogecoin mining ecosystem. The public listing, the firm added, will provide United Dogecoin with capital and a platform to scale operations beyond what private mining ventures have achieved in the Dogecoin space.
United Dogecoin plans to mirror successful Bitcoin mining strategies by both mining and holding Dogecoin on its balance sheet.
“The completion of this transaction will give investors exposure to Dogecoin via our dual-pronged strategy of mining Dogecoin with highly efficient, cost-effective rigs and holding mined Dogecoin on our balance sheet to build long-term asset value,” said United Dogecoin CEO Ryan Trasolini in a statement. He will serve as co-CEO of the combined company.
“United Dogecoin's strategy mirrors that of Hut 8's back in 2017,” board member Andrew Kiguel said in a statement. “We believe that while the opportunity for incredible upside in new Bitcoin miners has passed, Dogecoin mining is in its infancy, and United Dogecoin is well positioned to be a leader in the space.”
Shuttle (SHPH) shares spiked Thursday night after the close of trading, rising from a closing price of $1.03 to an after-hours peak of $1.52, according to data from Yahoo Finance. The stock later gave up nearly all of those gains and was recently trading at $1.05.
Meanwhile, DOGE is up about 12% in the last week, making it the largest gainer among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. It was recently trading for just under $0.11 after touching a more than two-month high earlier Friday.
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