NovaBay Pharmaceuticals said it will change its name to Stablecoin Development Corporation as it pivots from biopharma into the stablecoin and crypto sector, and its shares jumped nearly 19% on the announcement.
CEO Michael Kazley described the rebrand as alignment with the company’s new focus on tapping cash flows from the growing stablecoin economy and participating in protocol-level digital finance. The firm said the new ticker will be SDEV, replacing NBY, effective April 3.
In regulatory filings the company outlined a shift to operate as an on-chain holding company that takes long-duration positions in digital asset protocols. As part of that strategy NovaBay disclosed holdings of just over two billion Sky (SKY) tokens as of March 16, representing more than 8% of SKY’s total supply.
Shares spiked about 19% to $1.38 in the session after the name-change and strategic pivot were revealed.
NovaBay, founded in 2000 as a California biopharmaceutical company focused on eye care, said it entered a $134 million private placement backed by Tether Investments to acquire and hold assets within the SKY protocol ecosystem. To date the company reports having purchased more than two billion SKY tokens and earned cumulative staking rewards of 26.6 million SKY. SKY traded around $0.073 as of Tuesday.
The company said its risk and operating framework currently approves SKY as the only digital asset for its balance sheet, and it intends to continue acquiring SKY tokens on the open market while holding protocol-aligned assets for extended participation in protocol economics.
NovaBay also highlighted stablecoins as a major component of global digital financial infrastructure and expressed particular interest in yield-bearing stablecoins, characterizing them as productive financial assets that can support savings, treasury management, and capital formation.
The move follows a broader trend of public companies shifting into crypto-related strategies over the past year as a way to seek new revenue paths, though analysts warn that the industry could see consolidation while markets remain subdued since last October.