Portage Biotech has announced a major shift in strategy, moving away from its biotech roots to establish a digital asset treasury centered on Toncoin (TON), the cryptocurrency tied to the Telegram ecosystem.
Rebrand and leadership changes
As part of the transition, the company will be renamed AlphaTON Capital Corp., with its Nasdaq ticker symbol changing from PRTG to ATON, effective Thursday.
Incoming CEO Brittany Kaiser said that the company sees TON as a unique opportunity.
“TON is at the beginning of its explosive growth curve, now that it vertically integrated into Telegram this year, which has over 1 billion monthly active users,” she noted, pointing to the recent U.S. launch of the TON wallet in July.
Kaiser will be joined by Enzo Villani, CEO of Alpha Transform Holdings, who will serve as Chief Investment Officer and Executive Chairman. The firm will also draw on strategic advisors including Anthony Scaramucci (SkyBridge Capital), author Michael Terpin, and Jamie Rogozinski, founder of WallStreetBets.
Treasury structure and fundraising
To begin building its treasury, AlphaTON expects to close on $38 million in net proceeds from a private securities sale and an additional $35 million loan facility from BitGo.
Kaiser explained that the firm is acquiring TON tokens both directly and as part of investment inflows.
“We are purchasing a large tranche of TON tokens at a discount to add to the treasury, and we also accepted TON as investment—this means our first $100+ million market value of TON will have been acquired for less than $70 million.”
Deployment beyond token holding
AlphaTON said it will not simply accumulate Toncoin in reserve. The operational strategy includes active deployment through staking, network validation, and DeFi participation. The company also plans to incubate and accelerate projects across the TON and Telegram ecosystems, including applications in DeFi, gaming, and business solutions.
“AlphaTON Capital will not only be developing a robust TON treasury … but actively supporting businesses in the TON and Telegram ecosystems,” Kaiser said. “That provides ATON with multiple revenue streams beyond staking and validation, which we see as our differentiator.”
Market reaction and legacy operations
Shares of Portage (PRTG) briefly spiked earlier on Wednesday to $9.43, compared with a prior close of $6.96, before ending the day lower at $6.84. Despite the rebrand, Kaiser confirmed the legacy biotech operations will continue to run.
Growing trend among public firms
AlphaTON follows Verb Technologies, which announced a Toncoin treasury strategy in August, securing $558 million in TON.
Toncoin serves as the native token of The Open Network, a layer‑1 blockchain originally incubated at Telegram before regulatory challenges in 2020 forced the project into the hands of external developers. Telegram has since renewed its support for TON, culminating in a January exclusivity deal allowing only TON to power blockchain‑connected mini apps in its ecosystem.
At the time of writing, TON trades at $3.13, roughly flat over the last 24 hours but down about 37% year‑over‑year.
Gunel Ismayilova
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