CEA Industries, the world’s largest BNB treasury company, has lost 95% of its value and is now demanding CZ’s YZi Labs disclose a secret side agreement.
The world’s largest BNB treasury company has lost nearly all of its value. CEA Industries, trading on Nasdaq under the ticker BNC, now sits at $3.88 per share. That is a 95% collapse from its 52-week high of $82.88.
And the company is not going down quietly.
As Protos reported on X, CEA Industries issued a press release demanding that YZi Labs, the family office of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ), disclose the full terms of a confidentiality provision. That provision sits between YZi Labs and 10X Capital Asset Management LLC, the firm that led CEA’s $500 million PIPE transaction back in July 2025.
The PIPE deal coincided with the stock’s all-time high.
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From Vape Shops to Crypto Vaults: The Pivot Nobody Questioned
CEA Industries was not always in the business of holding BNB. The company previously ran Canadian vape retail locations under the ticker VAPE and before that traded as CEAD. Its stock had already fallen from a $873 peak in 2018 to under $8 before it found crypto.
The pivot to BNB came at the height of the digital asset treasury mania in summer 2025. 10X Capital stepped in as BNB asset manager, “with the support of YZi Labs,” per CEA’s own prior disclosures. Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm connected to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, acted as lead financial advisor and sole placement agent.
Some of the biggest names in crypto backed the PIPE. Pantera Capital, GSR, Arrington Capital, Borderless, Blockchain.com, Arche Capital, Hypersphere Capital, Kenetic, and the founders of BitFury all participated.
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The “Secret Side Agreement” Now at the Center of Everything
CEA’s press release centers on a confidentiality provision that it claims has never been shared with the company itself. The company says YZi Labs’ involvement in 10X Capital’s management role could be problematic. It wants the full terms made public.
YZi Labs pushed back. The family office contested CEA’s characterization of the alleged secret agreement, calling the claims false. YZi Labs also requested that board members Hans Thomas and David Namdar recuse themselves from asset management discussions. The family office has further moved to solicit stockholder written consents for board changes.
10X Capital’s Chief Investment Officer, Russell Read, became CIO of CEA Industries after the PIPE closed. By September 2025, the company had moved him to a non-executive role. He resigned by year’s end.
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A Collapse That Fits Right In
CEA Industries is not the only digital asset treasury that has cratered. Nakamoto, another Cantor Fitzgerald-linked vehicle managed by the same 10X Capital, has dropped 99% from its May 2025 peak. Twenty-One is down 89% since May. Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company shed 37% since July.
CEA’s 95% loss is bad. Within this peer group, it is almost expected.
The stock has dropped 41% year to date, 67% over the past 12 months and 98% across the past five years. The BNB treasury pivot was supposed to reverse years of decline. It did the opposite.
One user on X, @CobuzAlexandru, put it plainly: “What a bs article, I don’t understand how they lost so much. They tried to build a treasury, buying and holding BNB, but in the end, they did what? That vanished 98% of the value?”
That question does not have a clean answer yet. The infighting between CEA Industries and YZi Labs is still live. The secret side agreement remains undisclosed. And the investors who backed a $500 million BNB bet are sitting on near-total losses.
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