MEI Pharma (NASDAQ: MEIP) shocked everyone in Wall Street by introducing Litecoin as its main treasury reserve asset. For the first time a public company on a national stock exchange did that. On July 18 of 2025, the company broke in with a $100 million private investment in public equity (PIPE). All $100 million went into Litecoin.
The move brought out a fast response. MEIP stock shot up 98.98% in a single day. At the same time, trade volume saw a rise of over 19,000%. The average went from just over 214,000 shares to a number which is hard to fathom at 41 million.
Analysts report we are at a crossroads in corporate treasury strategy. The biotech sector is now entering the crypto space, a field thus far dominated by fintech giants and Bitcoin proponents.
MEI Pharma Litecoin Treasury Backed By Charlie Lee And GSR
In a large $100 million PIPE transaction, we sold 29.2 million shares at $3.42 each. GSR, which has regulatory approvals in Singapore and the UK, took the lead for us in MEI’s treasury management. They also acted as a strategic advisor.
Crypto giant Charlie Lee, who is the founder of Litecoin, joined the round as a lead investor. He will take a seat on MEI Pharma’s board come July 22 when the deal goes through. He brings to the table a strong technical background of having worked at Google and Coinbase. This, in turn, adds serious credibility to MEI’s crypto play.
The investor group includes the likes of the Litecoin Foundation, ParaFi, Hivemind, CoinFund, and MOZAYYX. This is an indication of the project’s appeal to large-scale crypto institutions.
A Risky Move
Faster transactions, lower fees, strong uptime, and better regulation. Litecoin reports that they put out blocks every 2.5 minutes. This is opposed to Bitcoin’s 10 minutes, which in turn produces better liquidity for corporate treasury ops. Also of note is that since 2011, they have had a 100% uptime which is very reliable.
Also, in the case of Litecoin there is less regulatory ambiguity as compared to Bitcoin or Ethereum. This in turn reduces legal risks for a publicly traded pharma company.
Market response reflected investor confidence. Litecoin saw a 12.5% rise, which is from $100.19 to $112.72 within a day. Of the over 90 public companies which are into Bitcoin at this time, MEI Pharma has taken the lead in altcoin adoption in the corporate finance space.
