Twenty-five years after it set out to treat eye conditions, a California pharmaceutical company has decided its future lies not in medicine but in digital money. NovaBay Pharmaceuticals stunned markets Monday by announcing a full rebrand to Stablecoin Development Corporation, triggering a near 19% surge in its share price as investors cheered the dramatic change of direction.
The stock shot up to $1.38 following the news, underscoring just how hungry the market remains for crypto-linked products. CEO Michael Kazley spelled out the rationale, saying the company intends to tap into cash flows circulating through the fast-expanding stablecoin economy. The ticker symbol will follow suit, moving from NBY to SDEV when the change takes effect on April 3, 2026.
Tether-Backed Deal Makes The Difference
Serious money backs the move. NovaBay raised $134 million from Tether Investments—one of the biggest names in crypto. It is putting that cash to work inside the SKY protocol, a blockchain-based platform that lets users earn rewards by holding and staking its native SKY token within a decentralized financial ecosystem. NovaBay has built a position of over two billion SKY tokens—a stake that accounts for more than 8% of the token’s entire supply. On top of that, staking activity has generated cumulative rewards of 26.6 million additional SKY tokens. The token was priced at $0.073 at the time of writing.
Back in January, NovaBay had already informed investors about its plans to become a long-term crypto-focused investment company by quietly filing documents with the US securities regulator. It now says it will keep buying more SKY tokens whenever the price is right.
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Yield-Bearing Stablecoins Are the Next Target
Looking further ahead, the company has identified yield-bearing stablecoins as a priority. It describes these instruments as productive financial assets capable of opening new avenues for savings, treasury operations, and capital formation. But SKY remains the only asset currently approved under its risk management framework.
NovaBay joins a string of companies that have chased a crypto rebrand to revive flagging prospects, even as analysts warn that softening markets since October may trigger a shakeout across the sector.
