EV Startup Faraday Future Plans Multibillion Dollar Crypto Play

Electric vehicle startup Faraday Future said it plans to launch several crypto-focused initiatives, including creating a crypto treasury and offering tokenized vehicle sales.

Nasdaq-listed Faraday Future said on Sunday that it planned to create a “C10 (Crypto 10) Treasury” product and initially buy $30 million worth of crypto, which it hoped “could reach tens of billions in size.”

“The next decade could be a super long bull cycle for the crypto market,” said Ian Calderon, Faraday Future co-creation officer and founding board member of the California Blockchain Working Group.

Faraday Future is the latest publicly listed company planning to buy crypto, a trend that has seen billions of dollars in funding and helped boost share prices as Wall Street looks to gain crypto exposure.

Faraday launches crypto basket product

Faraday Future said it’s also launching a “C10 Index,” a market-cap-weighted basket fund that tracks the top 10 crypto assets, excluding stablecoins, and added that it’s also exploring the creation of an exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Alongside the index and ETF plans, the company will launch a strategy to buy the top 10 cryptocurrencies and said it would purchase $500 million to $1 billion in crypto, starting with its initial $30 million tranche.

The company said the treasury is designed to provide sustainable returns with staking yields, “which can fund product innovation, potential stock buybacks, and further asset growth.” 

The company also plans to launch an “EAI Vehicle Chain” for tokenized vehicle sales and crypto-based deposits. EAI stands for Embodied AI and refers to AI physically integrated into real-world objects, such as cars.

California State Treasurer Fiona Ma endorsed the move, stating the plan “has the potential to boost our economy, create high-quality jobs, attract top-tier investment, and advance sustainable development worldwide.”

Faraday Future’s rocky history 

The pivot to crypto comes at a transitional period for the firm, whose share price has suffered as the company halted work on a $1 billion electric vehicle factory in Nevada in 2016, which caused delays in production of its flagship vehicle, the FF91.

The EV startup has reportedly only delivered 16 vehicles as of January and has recently pivoted to rebadging Chinese-made electric vans 

Related: Behind the scenes of public companies that are rushing to create crypto treasuries

In July, Faraday Future disclosed that the US Securities and Exchange Commission sent a Wells notice, a threat of enforcement action, to its founder, Jia Yueting, and president, Jerry Wang, after a three-year fraud investigation that focused on allegedly false statements made during the company’s 2021 SPAC merger.

Company shares slide 

Shares in Faraday Future (FFAI) ended trading on Friday down 7.6% at $2.77.

However, the shares have performed well so far this year, gaining 75% over the past six months to bring its year-to-date gains to 14% according to Google Finance. 

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