This morning, Long Island Iced Tea, a New York-based beverage maker, announced it was changing its name to Long Blockchain Corp. The company’s relation to cryptocurrency is dubious — it says it will “leverage the benefits of blockchain technology” — but it was quickly rewarded with a 200 percent jump in stock price at the opening of trading.
Long Island Iced Tea isn’t the first or even the strangest company to try cashing in on the bitcoin craze. As bitcoin’s value skyrocketed past $15,000 earlier this month, several companies have rewritten their name or mission statement to reference blockchain technology or cryptocurrency. Just a mention of bitcoin appears enough to woo investors and get media attention (including, now, this story).
Bloomberg noted several of the stranger rebranding efforts: sports bras, juice, and e-cigarette companies that appear to have had very little to do with bitcoin previously.
Formerly known as SkyPeople Fruit Juice, the Hong Kong-based company renamed itself Future FinTech Group Inc. Despite the new label, the company still makes packaged food and, in its November presentation to investors, made mention of its plans to expand kiwi and orange plantations.
Another company, The Crypto Company, actually deals in cryptocurrency but went public by acquiring a sports bra company. The Crypto Company had its stock suspended by the SEC on Tuesday, citing concerns about accuracy and “potentially manipulative transactions.” The public sports bra company it acquired had declared quite ambitiously on its site that its bras were going to have pockets for holding money, chapstick, and ID, a tiny phone charger, and mace.
Then in the vaping business, the California-based Vapetek Inc. has decided to rename itself Nodechain Inc. and says it will explore Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. Nodechain says it has many GPU mining rigs it bought from US suppliers and estimates that it will be able to pull in around $500 in ethereum or in bitcoin per rig each day. The publicly traded company also changed its website domain from Vapetek.com to Nodecha.in.
In one of the more extreme cases, a Hong Kong group called Ping Shan Tea Group Limited, which, as its name suggested, makes tea, has redefined itself as Blockchain Group Co Ltd. Its website now incongruously shows a sleek blockchain logo alongside large stretches of a tea plantation.
Like Ping Shan, now Blockchain Group, Long Blockchain Corp. is going to continue making tea despite its new name. It’s all reminiscent of yesteryear’s dot com bubble when random companies would add dot com to their names.
Left Image: Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images. Right Image: iStock / Getty Images Plus
As anyone who's been on the internet this year knows, the price of Bitcoin has exploded. The idea of making millions for doing next to nothing makes Americans lose their minds, so it's not surprising that people who had never heard of cryptocurrency a few years (or even months or weeks) ago are now more than willing to invest in it. At least some experts say the fact that consumers are reportedly taking out credit card debt and mortgages to do so suggests a speculative bubble is looming. After all, if you ask any given Bitcoin proponent how blockchain technology works, there's a good chance you'll be met with silence or rage.
But the combination of hype and a general lack of knowledge about what's being invested in seems to have some investors latching onto anything with the words 'Bitcoin' or 'blockchain' in it. Or at least that's the only plausible explanation for why a beverage company saw its shares rise by almost 300 percent after a name change from Long Island Iced Tea Corp. to Long Blockchain Corp.
According to Bloomberg, it's just one of several companies that have rebranded to capitalize on the crypto craze. Not that such a pivot necessarily means a whole lot in particular for Long Blockchain, which appears to remain a company that literally sells lemonade—albeit one that was struggling before it got in on the gold rush.
"As with many of the recently christened crypto companies—a list that includes former makers of juice, sports bras and sofas—Long Blockchain so far has little to show for its aspirations," Bloomberg reported. "It has no agreements with any blockchain firms, and says 'there is no assurance that a definitive agreement with these, or any other entity, will be entered into or ultimately consummated.'"
The main thing this company has done differently at this stage, so far as the outside world can tell, is purchase longblockchain.com. Its original website remains intact and promotes their signature product of Long Island Tea.
Speaking of misleading names, this stuff is apparently non-alcoholic.
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Apparently even iced tea companies are not immune from cryptocurrency fever.
On Thursday, Long Island Iced Tea Corporation said that it would shift its primary focus from beverages to the exploration of and investment in blockchain technology. It will also be changing its name to Long Blockchain Corporation.
The Farmingdale, N.Y. company's stock initially roared 500% higher on the news. By mid-morning, it was up 200% to $8.50.
"Blockchain technology is fundamentally changing the way people and businesses transact, and the company will strive to be at the forefront of this dynamic industry, actively pursuing opportunities," the company said on its new website. It noted that it's only in the preliminary stages of figuring out specific opportunities.
In connection with its name change, the company said it plans to ask Nasdaq to change its ticker symbol. It has also reserved the website www.longblockchain.com.
As the price of bitcoin has soared 1,800% this year and captured intense interest from investors, small companies are coming up with ways to insert themselves into the mania. Take Nova Lifestyle, a furniture company, whose stock is up 21% since it announced a new subsidiary called “I Design Blockchain Technology Inc." A little-known fintech company called Longfin raced higher this week for no other reason than it bought a blockchain company. A biotech company changed its name to Riot Blockchain. The tenuous connection these companies have to digital money hasn't stopped investors from piling in.
Meanwhile, other well-known companies have embraced cryptocurrency. Overstock, for instance, was one of the first retailers to accept bitcoin as payment and is also raising money through an initial coin offering. It's chief executive recently told a reporter that it may eventually sell off its retail business and focus only on crypto-related businesses, including its token trading exchange tZero. Among ailing retailers, Overstock has been a star. Its stock has quadrupled in the last six months and it now has a market capitalization of $1.69 billion. Square's stock also spiked when it said it would starting allowing some users to buy and sell bitcoin through its app.
Long Island Iced Tea Corp., which has just 19 full-time employees and brought in $4.5 million in sales last year, won't completely throw in the towel on cold drinks. It will continue to operate the iced tea business as a subsidiary.
The company did not respond to requests for comment over email or phone.
