Another penny stock joined the ranks of public market options that has experienced a substantial price surge after declaring it would shift its corporate focus to cryptocurrency related business.
TimefireVR Inc, an Arizona-based company that was established in 2014 to develop a virtual reality application platform, said in a release that the company has sold its virtual reality assets.
This is part of its strategy shift to investing in cryptocurrencies and the possible acquisition of blockchain technologies.
The firm, publicly listed on OTCQB, an over-the-counter exchange platform operated by the OTC Marketplace Group, then saw a 200% price surge, according to data from Yahoo Finance.
After closing at $0.03 on Jan. 3, the penny stock saw a high open at $0.1, and dropped slightly to $0.0938 as of press time.
Other public stocks have seen an identical trend.
In recent months, the biotech company BiOptix and beverage firm Long Island Iced Tea both had major price jumps after rebranding to Riot Blockchain and Long Blockchain, respectively, a new focus that was reportedly related to the blockchain technology.
Also of note after such market actions, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a self-regulatory organization (SRO) in the U.S., gave a warning to investors, telling them to be wary about stocks that flaunt involvement in blockchain or cryptocurrencies and subsequently see a stock price increase.
Jonathan Read Named CEO
The firm also said in the release that it has hired Jonathan Read as its CEO.
Read, who has been a director of the TimefireVR since August 2017, functioned as a board director of BTCS, a publicly traded bitcoin startup since July last year.
“Blockchain technology and its application of crypto currencies is an amazing enabling technology paradigm that will have a profound and disruptive impact on a host of industries,” said Read.
“I am incredibly proud of our accomplishments in virtual reality; however, the Board of Directors made a strategic decision, in the best interest of our shareholders, to leverage my experience in blockchain technology where I serve as a member of the board of directors of BTCS Inc. (OTC Pink: BTCS), our strategic business vision and our ability to access the capital markets immediately.”
While indicating the new strategy will focus on ethereum, the firm has yet to respond to requests asking for clarification whether such investment refers to actually owning the ethereum tokens or cultivating smart contract applications on top of the ethereum blockchain.
