VCI Global unveils crypto treasury plan, backs Tether's payments arm OOBIT

Malaysia-based VCI Global (Nasdaq: VCIG) just dropped a massive crypto treasury play — they're acquiring $100M in OOB tokens and taking over the digital treasury management for OOBIT, the Singapore-based crypto payments platform that's been grinding since 2017.

Here's the tea: Tether is about to become VCI Global's largest shareholder through its stake in OOBIT. The investor roster is stacked — we're talking Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, CMCC Global, and 468 Capital all in the mix.

The deal structure is wild: VCI already copped $50M in OOB tokens from the OOB Foundation at a $200M market cap ($0.20 per token) by paying with company shares. They're planning to scoop up another $50M worth on the open market post-launch.

VCI Global isn't playing around — they're a legit Nasdaq-listed tech and investment firm building platforms across AI, digital finance, and data infrastructure. They already showed their crypto chops back in February 2024 when they raised $25M in a Series A to expand OOBIT's payments app.

But the market reaction was brutal — VCI shares tanked over 20% in early trading after the announcement dropped. Sometimes the streets don't appreciate vision.

OOBIT launched its crypto-to-fiat payments app back in April 2022, letting merchants accept crypto payments and cash out in real money. Since May 2024, they've been integrated with The Open Network (TON) to power retail payments using Tether's USDt stablecoin and their gold-backed token XAUt.

The stablecoin payments space is getting crowded AF — traditional payment giants and fintech players are all scrambling to build the next-gen infrastructure. Visa just announced they're rolling out stablecoin support across four new blockchains in October, and Stripe started testing their upcoming stablecoin network 'Tempo' back in April.

OOBIT's own March report revealed some spicy stats: 70% of crypto payments in the EU are going to food-and-beverage and retail purchases, with the average transaction sitting at just $8.36. People are literally buying their coffee with crypto now.