Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Golem (@web3_golem)

The winds in the cryptocurrency world come swiftly and leave just as fast.

DAT once stirred up huge waves in 2025, with large numbers of speculators teaming up with shell companies listed on the US stock market to concoct a false prosperity of "cryptocurrency assets invading US stocks." By the time FOMO investors came to their senses, their accounts had already been completely raided. If you were one of them, the following news might bring you a bit of balance: Even CZ has fallen into the hands of the same group of people.

At that time, more than 30 listed companies in the market were vying to build BNB's treasury, and CZ announced he would "choose carefully." In the end, he selected CEA Industries, founded by Galaxy Digital co-founder David Namdar. In July 2025, CEA Industries (NASDAQ: BNC) completed a $500 million private placement led by YZi Labs and began formally implementing the BNB reserve plan.

CZ's choice of David Namdar seemed flawless—an impressive resume and a close personal connection that placed him within the "trusted circle." Unfortunately, CZ's investment acumen has always been "hard to articulate," and once again, he failed to see clearly.

In November 2025, the conflict between YZi Labs and CEA Industries erupted completely. YZi Labs accused BNC's stock price of continuously falling and the board of inaction, and demanded the election of new directors. At that time, Odaily Planet Daily analyzed that YZi Labs would likely take over BNC, and David Namdar would be ousted, bringing the matter to a close. (Related reading: BNB treasury leader faces harsh criticism, "CZ's confidant" may be ousted?)

No one expected that the real spectacle was just beginning.

The person who cut CZ has already run

On March 24, YZi Labs released a statement condemning CEA Industries for paying the departing CEO nearly $1.98 million in severance compensation to help him transition smoothly, demanding that the board publicly explain the rationale behind the severance compensation.

At the same time, YZi Labs accused CEA Industries' board of having funneled millions of dollars to related parties, paying a total of $3.8 million to 10X Capital since June 7, 2025; additionally, the company's CEO and CFO positions had been held by the same person (Odaily note: CEA Industries hired a new CFO on March 9), and the company lacked adequate verification controls in key areas such as revenue, taxation, and equity compensation.

YZi Labs investment partner Alex Odagiu finally expressed the truth that should have been noticed a year ago—“The board of CEA Industries has already treated a NASDAQ-listed company as a personal ATM.”

Who is this departing CEO? Who is 10X Capital?

This CEO is still David Namdar. That’s right, he wasn't ousted by YZi Labs last November; rather, he leisurely departed after emptying CEA Industries now. He is also the CEO of 10X Capital, which is the asset manager of CEA Industries and was also the biggest driving force behind transforming CEA Industries into a BNB treasury company last year.

According to CEA Industries' 8-k filing submitted to the SEC on March 16, David Namdar had not received any cash or equity compensation from when he became the company's CEO on August 5, 2025, until he signed a transition agreement on March 16, 2026, so now it is being retroactively issued; legally it seems to be fine, as David Namdar successfully slipped away. On March 25, the top post of CEA Industries' official X account was changed to indicate they were looking for a new CEO.

According to foreign media reports, in early March this year, a BNC investor visited CEA Industries' company office in Nevada, USA, and found that CEA Industries had already become a shell, with no management or operations. In terms of business, official information shows that CEA Industries currently holds 515,544 BNB, at a cost of $855, but its last public purchase of BNB was in November 2025.

After being criticized by YZi Labs, CEA Industries recruited a new director the same day as YZi Labs demanded — Annemarie Tierney, founder of Liquid Advisors, whose resume is also impressive, but she is not from the YZi Labs camp. CEA Industries can react to YZi Labs on every matter, but none of the matters have outcomes.

Back to the point, why wasn’t David Namdar ousted by YZi Labs last November? Was it because CZ protected him? The answer is certainly no; YZi Labs had this intention but lacked the strength.

The struggle between the David Namdar camp and the YZi Labs camp

In fact, starting last November, the David Namdar camp and the YZi Labs camp have been engaged in a struggle for control of CEA Industries that continues to this day.

The David Namdar camp includes his established 10X Capital and the entire board of CEA Industries, and these two organizations overlap significantly in personnel, allowing them to control CEA Industries.

YZi Labs is a major shareholder of CEA Industries. In a filing submitted to the SEC on January 8, YZi Labs indicated that it had cumulatively held 4,255,043 shares of common stock in CEA Industries, approximately 9.4% of the issued common stock.

The core purpose of YZi Labs' struggle is to expand the board of CEA Industries from 6 to 13 members, with the additional 7 members all coming from YZi Labs, with CZ also among the candidates. If successful, YZi Labs will control a majority of the new board seats.

Although YZi Labs is already a major shareholder of CEA Industries, it still lacks enough votes to directly place people on the board. Therefore, YZi Labs also needs to unite with other shareholders and initiate a written consent solicitation to implement the reforms it has aimed for since November, which is also why YZi Labs is so keen to expose and publicize that David Namdar's actions infringe on the interests of all shareholders.

However, David Namdar's board will of course not allow YZi Labs' plan to succeed easily. Firstly, David Namdar postponed CEA Industries' 2025 annual shareholder meeting by 16 months, cutting off the important opportunity for shareholders to vote on board members. Secondly, in a particularly ruthless move, David Namdar launched a "poison pill plan" and amended the company's articles of association on December 26.

This plan's official name is a revised Stockholder Rights Plan, and CEA Industries stated in documents submitted to the SEC that because YZi Labs formed a shareholder group aimed at controlling the company (YZi Labs Group), the board decided to amend the stockholder rights agreement and company bylaws—last revised in 2018.

At this point in the story, David Namdar has essentially stopped pretending, creating a deadlock for CZ: To replace me, not only is the cost high, but you also need to get my consent first.

First, the new stockholder rights agreement stipulates that if a group or individual beneficially holds shares reaching or exceeding 15% without the board's approval, rights held by other shareholders will take effect, allowing them to purchase additional stock at a 50% discount. This means that if YZi Labs continues to increase its shareholding ratio, other shareholders may have the opportunity to buy in "cheap," diluting YZi Labs' equity and significantly increasing its cost of competing for control of CEA Industries; and warrants are also counted in the beneficial shareholding, so if these are considered, YZi Labs' actual holding ratio has exceeded 19.99%.

Secondly, the new company bylaws stipulate that any shareholder seeking to take action by written consent must first request the company to set a record date, and additional stringent disclosure requirements have been added. This means that the consent solicitation for the new company directors initiated by YZi Labs will also require the approval of the board led by David Namdar, which procedurally obstructs and delays YZi Labs' actions.

On March 24, after YZi Labs condemned David Namdar and his board for lining their own pockets, the CEA Industries board delivered a counterattack. They stated that YZi Labs' proposed application letter for the consent solicitation of new company directors in January did not meet the company's bylaws and would not proceed with registration. CEA Industries specified that YZi Labs had not disclosed the number of BNB held by its affiliates and agents, nor disclosed the financial relationship between YZi Labs and its agents; if YZi Labs controlled the board, it could harm the interests of other shareholders.

It seems that experience is still the best teacher; currently, in this struggle for control, David Namdar has already won, and YZi Labs, which invested a large amount of funds, can only condemn, condemn, and condemn again.

Although David Namdar has already drained CEA Industries completely, clicking on his X account reveals that his avatar features him wearing a shirt with the Binance logo and a hat that says "MAKE BNC GREAT AGAIN," with the pinned post still congratulating CZ on being pardoned by the U.S. government. Perhaps from the very beginning, David Namdar regarded CZ as an ATM.

On March 20, David Namdar’s important partner, 10X Capital co-founder Hans Thomas, also resigned from the board of CEA Industries, but YZi Labs is not willing to be left out. YZi Labs investment partner Alex Odagiu posted on the X platform: Hans Thomas has exited, but we are not done yet...

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。