BNB Treasury Titanic Takes a 95% Dive – CZ's Family Office Gets Walked the Plank

The world's largest $BNB-treasury vehicle has performed a 95% face-plant from its peak last year and is now publicly accusing Binance founder Changpeng Zhao's family office of a "secret side agreement." Nothing says 'strong corporate governance' like a public spat over clandestine clauses.

On Tuesday, the firm issued a press release demanding CZ's YZi Labs cough up the details of a confidentiality clause linking his family office to 10X Capital Asset Management LLC. This was the lead party in the July 2025 PIPE deal that conveniently coincided with the company's 52-week and multi-year high of $82.88 per share. Timing, as they say in degen circles, is everything.

The company, now trading under the Nasdaq ticker BNC after a rebrand from VAPE, watches its shares wallow at $3.88. That's a 95% haircut over the past seven months, a performance that would make even the most hardened bagholder wince.

Before catching the DAT mania wave in summer 2025, CEA Industries was running Canadian vape shops. A series of ticker pivots—from CEAD to VAPE—did little to stop a slide from an $873 high in 2018 to under $8 by the time it scooped up 33 vape locations. It's the corporate equivalent of trying every new shitcoin trend after your first one rug-pulls.

In July 2025, the firm chased the next big thing, landing Cantor Fitzgerald as lead financial advisor to 10X Capital and sole placement agent for CEA. The firm was founded by Howard Lutnick, a former US Commerce Secretary and, for the gossipmongers, Jeffrey Epstein's neighbor. Because in crypto, the advisory pedigree is always... interesting.

Cantor has also raised capital for other DATs like Twenty One, Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company, and Nakamoto. The same 10X Capital that led CEA's $500 million PIPE also advised Nakamoto, which has since cratered 99% from its May 2025 peak. Twenty One is down 89% since May, and Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company is down 37% since July. It's a veritable who's-who of "number go down" technology.

Even against that backdrop of devastation, CEA's 95% plunge is considered "somewhat unremarkable" among DATs. 10X Capital acted as CEA's $BNB asset manager "with the support of YZi Labs." CEA now claims that support might be the problematic bit and wants full disclosure on how CZ's family office "supported" 10X's $BNB management. When in doubt, subpoena the family office.

10X's chief investment officer Russell Read became CEA's CIO right after the PIPE closed, was shuffled to a non-executive role by September, and resigned by year-end. A classic corporate trajectory: in, up, out.

A veritable who's-who of crypto funds backed the PIPE—Pantera Capital, GSR, Arrington Capital, Borderless, Blockchain.com, Arche Capital, Hypersphere Capital, Kenetic, and the founders of BitFury. It's like a guest list for a conference no one wants to admit they attended anymore.

YZi Labs has pushed back, calling the "secret side agreement" claim false, asking directors Hans Thomas and David Namdar to recuse themselves from asset-management talks, and seeking stockholder consents for board changes. The boardroom drama is more compelling than the chart at this point.

Amid the infighting, CEA's common stock is down 41% year-to-date, 67% over the past 12 months,