MEI Pharma buys $100 million of Litecoin as treasury asset, with Charlie Lee and GSR as lead investors

MEI Pharma (ticker MEIP), a Nasdaq-listed pharmaceutical company, has acquired 929,548 Litecoin (LTC) tokens for $100 million, becoming the first U.S.-listed firm to adopt Litecoin as its primary treasury reserve asset.

The tokens were purchased at an average price of $107.58 between July 30 and Aug. 4. At current market prices of around $124, the LTC treasury is now valued at about $115 million. Litecoin is currently the 24th-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, with a total market cap of about $9.5 billion, according to The Block’s Litecoin price page.

The purchase was fully funded through a $100 million private placement closed last month, with Litecoin creator Charlie Lee and crypto trading firm GSR acting as lead investors. Lee has joined MEI’s board of directors, replacing Taheer Datoo, and GSR has been appointed as the company’s treasury asset manager. Other investors include the Litecoin Foundation, ParaFi, Hivemind, Primitive, RLH Capital, and Delta Blockchain.

MEI said its treasury strategy focuses on Litecoin due to its 13-year record of uninterrupted uptime, low fees, and fast settlement. The company also cited Litecoin’s integration into platforms like BitPay, PayPal, and Robinhood as validation of its utility.

The company may expand the strategy to include Litecoin mining and other initiatives. MEI continues to operate its drug development pipeline, including voruciclib, an experimental treatment being developed for cancer, and anticipates commencing further investigational research and development in the next several months.

Titan Partners Group, a division of American Capital Partners, acted as the sole placement agent for the deal. Legal advisors were Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP for MEI and Lucosky Brookman LLP for the placement agent.

MEI joins a growing number of public companies adopting crypto treasury strategies. While Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) has led the way with bitcoin, other firms have recently added Ethereum , Solana , XRP , Dogecoin , SUI , Toncoin , and other tokens to their balance sheets.