Lite Strategy: From Biotech To Litecoin Treasury

Summary LITS has pivoted from biotech to becoming a Litecoin treasury via a $100 million PIPE. LITS has so far bought around 929,548 Litecoin.

It has become the first US exchange-listed company holding Litecoin as its primary reserve asset. Using LITS’s pre-PIPE cash plus updated Litecoin holdings, I estimate LITS currently trades at approximately 0.

8x its total assets. Going forward, its cash burn will probably trend towards G&A expenses of $2.

4 million per quarter. That gives LITS a comfortable runway to maneuver in the near term.

In my view, LITS offers compelling value based on valuation numbers alone. But in the long run, investors are essentially betting on Litecoin’s price performance.

Lite Strategy Inc. ( LITS ) was formerly known as MEI Pharma, Inc.

and traded under the ticker “MEIP. ” LITS was an oncology firm working on two drug candidates, vorucliclib and ME-144, which could have been helpful as oncology combo therapies.

However, recently, LITS became the first US exchange-listed company to adopt a Litecoin ( LTC-USD ) treasury. This pivot was funded by a $100 million PIPE, which was used to buy around 929,548 Litecoin.

Also, its BitGo Prime loan framework gives LITS “borrow not sale” liquidity if needed. Lastly, I think there’s enough value at these levels to justify a “Buy” rating, but in the long run, LITS investors are essentially betting on the price of Litecoin itself going forward.

Pharma Turned Into Litecoin Treasury Lite Strategy Inc. was originally a clinical-stage oncology company that developed cancer therapies.

But surprisingly, in 2025, they also adopted a Litecoin treasury strategy funded by a $100 million PIPE funding to purchase Litecoin as a reserve asset. In the process, they also rebranded from MEIP into LITS as the first US public company to hold Litecoin as a key reserve holding.

This echoes a similar transition that MicroStrategy followed until it became Strategy Inc. ( MSTR ).

MicroStrategy used to rely on its consulting business, but over time became increasingly focused on only accumulating Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) as an investment vehicle for retail stock investors interested in the cryptocurrency. Source: Corporate Overview Presentation.

May 2025. In that sense, you can think now of LITS as the MSTR of Litecoin, though time will tell if it works out as well as it did for MSTR.

You see, unlike MSTR, LITS actually didn’t have any revenues at the time it decided to pursue its crypto-strategy pivot. Back then, its track included a pipeline with two drug candidates, vorucliclib and ME-144, that aimed to address resistance mechanisms to conventional cancer therapies.

Voruciclib is an oral CDK9 inhibitor for relapsed/refractory (r/r) AML treated with two or more prior lines. LITS planned to start a Phase 2 trial in 2025 (subject to FDA advice), based on the results of their previous Phase 1 study that included 42 patients on the combo with venetoclax (Venclexta).

Likewise, Vorucliclib was supposed to suppress MCL-1 and overcome venetoclax resistance. The company wanted to prove that voruciclib could be used across a wide range of AML, in a mutation-agnostic way, unlike menin, FLT3, or IDH inhibitors.

Roughly 50% to 55% of AML patients lack actionable driver mutations, and they can’t receive FLT3/IDH/menin-directed drugs. About 30% carry NPM1, 30% FLT3, and 20% IDH1/2, with overlap among these groups.

Therefore, a mutation-agnostic therapy, like CDK9 inhibition, could have helped around half of the population left without targeted options. On paper, this seemed compelling as the total US market size for r/r AML is forecasted to grow to $4.

7 billion by 2030. Moreover, thousands of those patients are treatable, with about half lacking actionable mutations.

Thus, these patients currently have poor outcomes, and vorucliclib can potentially fill this unmet medical need. Additionally, voruciclib completed a Phase 1/1b trial for solid tumors , especially KRAS-mutant cancers.

For this purpose, voruciclib was tested on 77 patients (alone and in combination with vemurafenib). The data showed good tolerability and efficacy, and supported future combination trials rather than a single-agent solid tumor therapy.

Source: Corporate Overview Presentation. May 2025.

Lastly, LITS had ME-344 for HER2-negative breast cancer and colorectal cancer in combination with bevacizumab. ME-344 was a mitochondrial oxidative-phosphorylation (OXPHOS) inhibitor, which reduces tumor cells’ ATP generation and increases oxidative stress.

This helped produce a tumor cellular energy crisis and death, especially in combination settings. Its Phase 1/1b trials were completed with encouraging activity and an acceptable safety profile.

Another study for solid tumors with VEGF inhibitors, bevacizumab & tyrosine-kinase inhibitors, was in a pre-IND stage as well. First-Mover Litecoin Treasury Nevertheless, LITS suddenly pivoted towards becoming a Litecoin treasury company and raised $100 million via a private investment in public equity ( PIPE ) to fund this ambition.

With this funding, MEIP bought approximately 929,548 Litecoin. In fact, Litecoin’s creator , Charlie Lee, joined LITS’s board to advise on digital-asset and treasury management.

In practice, this effectively made LITS the first US exchange-listed company to formally hold Litecoin as a primary asset. It’s worth mentioning that Litecoin also has some improvements over Bitcoin, like lower fees and faster settlement, which suggests it could be better as a treasury and reserve asset.

However, cryptocurrencies’ intrinsic value is complex , but seems largely tied to their network effects, rather than solely fundamental characteristics. So, it’s uncertain whether or not this Litecoin strategy will work as well as it did for MSTR with Bitcoin.

Source: Litecoin dot com. In any event, by September 3, 2025, LITS entered a master loan agreement with BitGo Prime .

This is an institutional prime-broker platform for trading, financing, and custody services for crypto. This new agreement created a framework to borrow cash or digital assets from time to time against Litecoin, which could give LITS flexibility without selling treasury holdings.

Also, LITS’s treasury strategy now sits at the holding-company level with board-approved policies. Its corporate governance covers allowed counterparties (i.

e. , brokers, lenders, and market makers), custody, leverage (if LITS can borrow against Litecoin), and liquidity policies.

Valuation And Risk Analysis Now, from a valuation perspective, LITS’s Q1 2025 report showed their balance sheet held $20. 5 million in cash, no debt (only regular operating liabilities), and a book value of $19.

5 million. At the time, there were roughly 6.

7 million shares outstanding. By July 2025, they raised their $100 million PIPE to purchase Litecoin and issued 29.

2 million new shares in the process. Thus, I estimate there are now around 35.

9 million shares outstanding, which at the current $2. 93 PPS implies a $105.

2 million market cap for LITS. Source: LITE’s Q1 2025 10-Q report.

Then, by August 2025, management disclosed they had purchased 929,548 Litecoin at an average price of $107. 58 per token (approximately a $100 million purchase).

And according to their Q1 10-Q, they’ve discontinued their biotech R&D, though it appears they’re willing to seek licensing deals or asset sales if possible. So, that means they probably still have their pre-PIPE cash of $20.

5 million, plus 929,548 Litecoin valued at $105. 5 million at the current price-per-token of $113.

50 . Since cash and Litecoin (about $126.

0 million) are the large majority of its assets today, I estimate LITS trades at approximately 0. 8x its assets, while holding no debt .

Lastly, their cash burn is probably going to be minimal going forward as well. Their OpEx has wound down significantly from $9.

8 million in Q1 2024 to just $2. 8 million in Q1 2025.

Most of their current OpEx is G&A expenses, which I suspect will probably become the cash burn run rate for a Litecoin treasury company like LITS. Thus, if we assume their quarterly cash burn will trend towards its latest G&A of $2.

4 million, it would imply a cash runway of around 8. 5 quarters.

In my view, this is more than enough time for them to find new revenue sources (or license their legacy biotech assets). This aligns with their new Litecoin-centric strategy, though it’s still definitely a risk worth considering.

Source: LITE’s website. In short, LITS is no longer pure-play biotech.

Instead, it’s more of a balance-sheet management tool that runs under updated board rules. Additionally, if LITS needs additional funding, they can potentially sell a portion of their Litecoin treasury (or borrow against it) with CFO approval.

If the action fits within their policy, the CFO can execute. If not, board approval will be required.

However, in practice, I get the impression LITS’s focus is no longer on R&D, but rather simply accumulating shareholder value through its Litecoin treasury and managing it. Conclusion: Compelling Value For Now Overall, the main risk with LITS now is essentially the price of Litecoin itself.

Obviously, if the price of Litecoin plunges, then LITS will probably follow the same path. And remember, LITS’s main asset right now is Litecoin, so it should track the cryptocurrency’s price very closely going forward.

But on the flip side, I think that at these levels, LITS is probably somewhat undervalued if we look at the cash it held before its pivot and the value of its Litecoin holdings today. In that sense, I have to lean bullish on the shares as I believe there’s a compelling entry price.

But in the long term, the investment thesis is basically Litecoin, and that depends on each investor’s take on this particular cryptocurrency’s prospects.