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RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2026
Related Party Transactions [Abstract]  
RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

NOTE 15 — RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

 

Lead Investor Agreement

 

In connection with the Subscription Agreement, the Company and Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc. entered into a Lead Investor Agreement. Pursuant to this agreement, Faraday committed to invest a minimum of $30 million in a Private Placement. The material terms of the Lead Investor Agreement include:

 

  Treasury Reserve & Crypto Custody: The Company will adopt a Treasury Reserve Policy establishing cryptocurrencies as its primary ongoing treasury reserve asset.
  Executive Appointments: Concurrent with the closing, Faraday appointed Jiawei Wang as Co-Chief Executive Officer and Koti Meka as Chief Financial Officer. The Faraday-appointed Co-CEO is solely responsible for all non-legacy business operations and has been granted sole access to all crypto-related accounts of the Company, subject to delegation.
  Board Restructuring: The Board size was initially reduced to five members, with Faraday appointing two initial directors to fill vacancies. Following stockholder approval, the Board will expand to seven members, granting Faraday the right to appoint up to two additional directors. Faraday retains the right to proportional board representation so long as it maintains at least 5% beneficial ownership of the Company’s Common Stock.
  Transitional Governance Controls: Prior to receiving stockholder approval, the Faraday-appointed Co-CEO will manage all new business affairs and holds the exclusive authority to approve and execute new agreements on behalf of the Company. Legacy business affairs continue to be managed by the current CEO.

 

Actual proceeds from the Lead Investor Agreement from Faraday as well as several members of Faraday’s executive management team amounted to $34.2 million.

 

As part of the Lead Investor Agreement, YT Jia, the Co Chief Executive Officer of Faraday, contributed $4,000,000.

 

As part of the Lead Investor Agreement, Jerry Wang, the President of Faraday, contributed $200,000.

 

Master Service Agreement

 

On September 30, 2025 the Company entered into a Transition Services Agreement with Faraday to provide support and management services. During the three months ended March 31, 2026, approximately $0.5 million was charged to the Company under the Transition Services Agreement and fully paid by the end of the period. During the three months ended March 31, 2026, $0.5 million was charged to the Company under the Transition Services Agreement, none of which was outstanding as of year end. There was no expenses charged under this agreement in the three months ended March 31, 2025. The balance of charges dues under this agreement was $1.0 million as of December 31, 2025 and was classified under Related Party Payable on the consolidated balance sheet

 

Related Party Accrued Expenses

 

In 2025 the Company entered into verbal agreements with several members of management and consultants, including Faraday Future Global Partners (a company that shares several board members with Faraday), the Chief Executive Officer of Faraday, several board members of Faraday, members of the audit committee of the Company, the Chief Executive Officer of the Company, and the Chief Financial Officer of Faraday, to provide management consulting services. These agreements were finalized in 2026, and were made retroactive to November 1, 2025. The agreements includes services beginning in the year ended December 31, 2025 in the total amount of approximately $639,000. This amount was outstanding as of December 31, 2025 and is classified under Related Party Payable on the unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheet. During the three months ended March 31, 2026, a total amount of approximately $805,000 was charged under these agreements, and as of March 31, 2026 approximately $448,000 was outstanding, and was classified under Related Party Payable.

 

 

Warrants

 

On May 22, 2020, as a commitment fee, the Company issued warrants to Alpha for the purchase of common stock. As of December 31, 2024, 141 of these warrants remained outstanding and exercisable, and were able to be exercised in whole or in part, at any time before May 22, 2025. These warrants expired, and as of December 31, 2025, none of these warrants remain outstanding and exercisable. During years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024 there were no exercises of this warrant. This warrant was equity classified as of December 31, 2023 and was reclassified to warrant liabilities during the year ended December 31, 2024 (see Note 8 - Warrant Liabilities).

 

On December 22, 2022, in conjunction with the issuance of a debenture to Alpha, the Company issued to Alpha a warrant to purchase 50,000 shares of the Company’s common stock. This warrant may be exercised by Alpha, in whole or in part, on or after June 22, 2023 and at any time before June 22, 2028, subject to certain terms and conditions described in the warrant. During the year ended December 31, 2024, Alpha partially exercised this warrant to purchase 31,998 shares respectively, of the Company’s common stock at a weighted average exercise price of $13.00, for total cumulative proceeds to the Company of $416,000. During the year ended December 31, 2025, there were no exercises of this warrant. This warrant is included in equity on the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets (see Note 14 – Stockholders’ Equity ).

 

On February 27, 2024, in conjunction with the issuance of a debenture to Alpha, the Company issued to Alpha, a warrant to purchase 18,001 shares of the Company’s common stock , exercisable in whole or in part, until February 27, 2029, subject to certain terms and conditions described in the warrant. This warrant is presented on the balance sheet as an equity classified warrant.

 

On September 6, 2024 as a result of the down-round provision triggered by shares sold in a public offering, the above warrants were repriced from $13.00 per share exercise price to $6.50 per share exercise price. The company recognized an additional deemed dividend of $27,587, which represents the incremental fair value of the outstanding warrants as a result of the down-round provision. As the Company has an accumulated deficit, the deemed dividend was recorded as a reduction in additional paid-in capital, resulting in a net impact of zero to additional paid-in capital in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of changes in stockholders’ equity. On April 28, 2025, as a result of the down-round provision triggered by the issuance of the 2025 Convertible Note, the warrant was repriced from an exercise price of $6.50 per share to an exercise price of $5.82 per share. No further down-round provisions were triggered by the July 28, 2025 private placement transaction or the Subscription Agreement as these warrants were at their contractual floor.

 

As a result of a partial voluntary conversion of the 2024 Alpha Debenture on September 9, 2024, the Company no longer had sufficient shares to settle the 2024 Alpha Warrant in full until shareholder approval was obtained, and a portion (2,314 warrant shares with a fair value of $14,997) was reclassified to liabilities (see Note 8 – Warrant Liabilities). Shareholder approval was subsequently obtained on October 25, 2024, and as of that date, the Company determined that shareholder approval resulted in equity classification for the warrant again and, accordingly, the Company remeasured the warrant liability to fair value, and reclassified to noncompensatory equity classified warrants.

 

During the three months ended March 31, 2026, there were no exercises of this warrant. This warrant is included in equity on the Company’s unaudited consolidated balance sheets (see Note 14 – Stockholders’ Equity).

 

As of March 31, 2026, the exercise price of all of the above warrants issued to Alpha was $6.50.

 

On April 12, 2024, in connection with the issuance of a debenture to Chen (see Note 9 – Convertible Debt), the Company issued a liability classified warrant to Chen to purchase 36,001 shares of common stock, exercisable until February 27, 2029. On September 6, 2024, as a result of a down-round provision triggered by shares sold in a public offering, the warrant was repriced from an exercise price of $13.00 per share to an exercise price of $6.50 per share. The warrant was initially liability classified due to an insufficient number of authorized shares to settle the warrant prior to the receipt of shareholder approval, which was subsequently obtained on October 25, 2024. As of that date, the Company determined that shareholder approval resulted in equity classification for the warrant and accordingly, the Company remeasured the warrant liability to fair value, and reclassified to noncompensatory equity classified warrants (see Note 14 – Stockholders’ Equity). The fair value of this warrant was $565,582 on the issuance date and $185,531 on the date of reclassification to equity. On April 28, 2025, as a result of the down-round provision triggered by the issuance of the 2025 Convertible Note, the warrant was repriced from an exercise price of $6.50 per share to an exercise price of $5.82 per share. No further down-round provisions were triggered by the July 28, 2025 private placement transaction or the Subscription Agreement as these warrants were at their contractual floor.

 

Prepaid Investment

 

In February 2026, the Company paid $10.0 million to Faraday, a related party, as part of an entrusted investment arrangement pursuant to which GKA was engaged to acquire equity securities on the Company’s behalf. As of March 31, 2026, the underlying securities had not been issued and the Company had not obtained ownership rights, and the advance is recorded as a prepaid investment as discussed in Note 5 – Prepaid Investment, Prepaid Expenses and Other Current Assets.