Greenlane's $70M BERA bet crashes 77%, threatens Nasdaq delisting
In brief
- Greenlane's BERA holdings crashed 77%, dropping treasury from $70.2M cost basis to $16.4M fair value.
- New Nasdaq rule requiring $5M minimum market value was approved July 22, then stayed July 29 pending SEC review.
- Without the stay, Greenlane falls below $5M threshold, triggering delisting without ordinary compliance cure period.
- Cash reserves declined to $6.1M from $32.5M year-end 2025, amid $24.8M Q2 net loss.
The Treasury Collapse
Greenlane's token treasury ended the second quarter valued at approximately 77% below cost. The markdown reflects sharp declines in BERA's price since the company built its position. Beyond the treasury loss, Greenlane reported a $24.8 million net loss for Q2, including a $19.1 million noncash change in digital-asset fair value. The company's operating loss was $3.3 million, while cash used in operations totaled about $7.1 million for the first half.
Cash reserves deteriorated sharply. Greenlane reported $6.1 million of cash at June 30, down from $32.5 million at the end of 2025. That burn rate—roughly $13 million per quarter—leaves limited runway without asset sales or capital raises.
The company also disclosed a separate $1.8 million impairment of its Airgraft investment. On the liability side, Greenlane held $8.1 million of aUSDC and sUSDe protocol instruments against $6.5 million of current liabilities, though the filing flags liquidity, redemption, counterparty, protocol and valuation risks around those instruments.
The Delisting Rule Trap
The immediate threat isn't the treasury loss itself—it's a new Nasdaq rule that arrived this summer. The SEC approved Nasdaq's new $5 million MVLS requirement on July 22, where MVLS stands for Market Value of Listed Securities (the product of share price and share count). But the SEC stayed that approval on July 29 while reviewing the decision.
The stay buys time. Yet a stayed Nasdaq rule could eventually expose the company to a $5 million listing test with no ordinary cure period. If the rule becomes operative, 30 consecutive business days below $5 million in MVLS would produce a Staff Delisting Determination. Critically, the delisting process would not include the ordinary compliance period used for many listing deficiencies.
Greenlane's math is grim. Using Greenlane's disclosed 694,544 shares and its $1.93 August 13 close, the one-day MVLS proxy was about $1.34 million. To reach $5 million MVLS at the disclosed share count would require roughly $7.20 per share, approximately 273% above the $1.93 close. Greenlane said that as of August 14, it would be below the $5 million MVLS threshold without the stay.
Where It Stands
Greenlane had received no deficiency notice or Staff Delisting Determination as of the filing date. The company is "evaluating unspecified alternatives" to improve its position—a standard filing phrase that could mean anything from asset sales to reverse splits to capital injection.
The treasury markdown does not mechanically cause a listing failure because Nasdaq's MVLS metric uses consolidated closing bid price multiplied by listed securities, not the value of BERA or other assets. Greenlane's survival depends on either the SEC lifting the stay (and delaying the rule indefinitely), or on the stock price recovering sharply—a 273% rally from August lows. A hearing request would not stay trading suspension in the delisting process.
