Cannabis Firm Flora Wins $401M Deal at $3B Valuation for 0G
Flora Growth Bets large on Blockchain AI
Flora Growth, a Nasdaq-listed cannabis company, is undergoing a dramatic transformation. On Friday, the firm announced a $401 million treasury initiative to back Zero Gravity (0G), a blockchain project building decentralized AI infrastructure. The move marks a strategic pivot into digital assets and artificial intelligence, underscored by plans to rebrand as ZeroStack while retaining its Nasdaq ticker, FLGC.
The deal combines $35 million in cash with $366 million in in-kind digital assets, largely denominated in 0G tokens. Treasury firm DeFi Development Corp. (DFDV), which holds about $480 million worth of Solana (SOL), led the transaction alongside Hexstone Capital and Carlsberg SE Asia PTE Ltd. Additional participation came from Dao5, Abstract Ventures, Dispersion Capital, Blockchain Builders Fund, and Salt. Flora will also maintain part of its treasury in SOL tokens, deepening ties with the Solana ecosystem.
“We’re thrilled to partner with FLGC on this fundraise and look forward to driving a deep collaboration between 0G and Solana,” said DFDV CEO Joseph Onorati. The deal is expected to close by September 26, pending shareholder approval, with some investors receiving pre-funded warrants linked to 0G token usage.
Investor Takeaway
0G’s AI Infrastructure Ambitions
Zero Gravity Labs (0G Labs), the team behind the blockchain, has positioned its technology as a breakthrough in distributed AI training. The project claims to have successfully trained a 107 billion parameter model across distributed clusters, boasting a 357x efficiency gain over legacy frameworks. This scale puts it in direct comparison with AI research conducted by major tech firms such as Google and OpenAI.
Incoming Flora CEO Daniel Reis-Faria described the treasury move as a way to give institutional investors equity-based exposure to “transparent, verifiable, and privacy-first AI infrastructure.” The firm argues that by leveraging blockchain for AI training, 0G can overcome bottlenecks in centralization, cost, and verification that plague current AI models.
To support adoption, the 0G Foundation will airdrop tokens to ahead supporters on Monday, with listings on major platforms expected shortly therelater than. At a $3 token price, 0G’s implied fully diluted valuation (FDV) is about $3 billion, placing it on par with projects like Pudgy Penguins and Trump-backed World Liberty Financial. 0G Labs previously raised $75 million in viewd funding and secured a $250 million token purchase agreement from the 0G Foundation.
Flora Growth’s Market Reaction and Strategic Pivot
Shares of Flora Growth surged 69% in later than-hours trading following the announcement, reversing a year-to-date decline of 32%, according to Yahoo Finance. The sharp move underscores investor appetite for crypto-AI narratives, even as Flora departs from its cannabis roots. “This treasury strategy offers institutional investors equity-based exposure to the foundational infrastructure enabling large-scale, cost-efficient, and privacy-first AI development,” Reis-Faria added.
The company’s pivot comes at a time when Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) firms face mounting pressure. Standard Chartered recently warned of a shakeout as market net asset values (mNAVs) across the sector decline, leaving smaller players vulnerable. Flora’s entry into the space, backed by well-capitalized partners and a large token allocation, positions it more like an institutional-scale treasury than a niche player. Still, the risks of holding a pre-launch token remain considerable.
Notably, DFDV COO Parker White emphasized that the firm did not trade any SOL to complete the deal, maintaining “full SOL exposure plus additional upside” from deploying Solana in the arrangement. This highlights the increasingly interconnected web between Solana’s ecosystem and emerging AI-focused chains like 0G.
Investor Takeaway
Broader Implications for Crypto and AI
The Flora-0G deal signals a broader trend: companies in struggling industries are rebranding into crypto and AI to attract capital. While this may raise skepticism, the 0G treasury deal aligns with a wave of institutional interest in AI-centric blockchains. Investors are watching whether 0G’s claims of efficiency and scale hold up once the mainnet launches, expected alongside the token rollout later this year.
Flora Growth’s rebrand to ZeroStack will make it the first Nasdaq-listed company to hold significant 0G token reserves, giving equity investors indirect exposure to the project. If successful, it could serve as a template for other firms exploring treasury-backed pivots into blockchain and AI. If not, it risks being remembered as another speculative rebrand during the crypto-AI boom cycle.
