Microcap companies are increasingly announcing rebrandings and strategic shifts towards cryptocurrency and blockchain businesses as they look to capitalize on bitcoin’s price surge in 2017. On Thursday, Long Island Iced Tea (LTEA), a maker of iced tea and other juice beverages, became the latest company to reinvent itself, sending its stock sharply higher.

LONG BLOCKCHAIN: Long Island Iced Tea announced that it is shifting its primary corporate focus towards the exploration of and investment in blockchain technology opportunities . In connection with the shift, the company changed its name from “Long Island Iced Tea Corp.” to “Long Blockchain Corp.” and has reserved the web domain www.longblockchain.com. The company, which plans to request a trading symbol change from Nasdaq, will continue to operate Long Island Brand Beverages as a wholly-owned subsidiary and maintain the focus of that business on the ready-to-drink segment. Long Island Iced Tea also submitted a request to the Securities and Exchange Commission to withdraw its filed registration statement relating to a proposed underwritten public offering. The iced tea maker added, “The company is already in the preliminary stages of evaluating specific opportunities involving blockchain technology. The discussions are only in the preliminary stages but indicate the areas of focus for the company.”

SEVEN STARS: On Wednesday, Seven Stars Cloud Group (SSC) announced a 27% purchase of The Delaware Board of Trade Holdings, a blockchain-based alternative trading system fully licensed by the SEC, for 1,627,869 shares of SSC common stock. The transaction makes SSC the largest shareholder of DBOT and puts SSC president and chief revenue officer Robert Benya on DBOT’s board.

LONGFIN: On Friday, Longfin (LFIN) announced the acquisition of Ziddu.com, a blockchain-empowered solutions provider that offers microfinance lending against collateralized warehouse receipts in the form of Ziddu Coins. A Ziddu Coin is a smart contract that enables SMEs, processors, manufacturers, importers and exporters using cryptocurrencies across continents. Following the announcement, shares of Longfin rose. However they dropped on Tuesday after Longfin CEO Venkat Meenavalli attributed the rise to “euphoric mania” and a small float in an interview with CNBC. He added that the company’s market capitalization at the time was not justified.

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