Bolt Projects Holdings, Inc. (BSLK)

Bolt Projects Holdings, Inc. is a biomaterials company that develops ingredients for the beauty and personal care industry. It is the successor to Bolt Threads, a materials science company founded in California in the late 2000s that became known for engineering proteins inspired by spider silk. After shifting away from consumer textiles and apparel, the company concentrated on materials supplied to other manufacturers.

The company's main technology platform produces b-silk, a vegan silk protein ingredient used in cosmetics and personal care formulations, and related ingredients developed through fermentation. The product has been commercially available since 2019. Bolt reported a portfolio of more than 80 granted patents and more than 110 pending applications covering its materials and processes. Its customers were a limited number of beauty and personal care brands and it depended on a single manufacturing partner. The company also described work on additional protein-based ingredients and on partnerships with cosmetics and personal care formulators. Because its revenue base was small, its results were sensitive to the timing of orders from a handful of customers.

Bolt Projects Holdings became publicly traded through a business combination with Golden Arrow Merger Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, completed in 2024. Following that transaction, its common stock and warrants were listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbols BSLK and BSLKW. The company's filings disclosed a history of net losses and negative operating cash flows, as well as substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.

The circumstances of the delisting were tied to Nasdaq's minimum stockholders' equity standard under Listing Rule 5550(b)(1). Nasdaq issued a delisting determination letter on December 31, 2025, after the company did not meet that requirement.

Trading of the common stock and warrants on Nasdaq was suspended on January 5, 2026, and the securities began trading on the OTC Pink market. On February 19, 2026, the company announced that its board had decided to delist the common stock voluntarily rather than wait for Nasdaq to file a Form 25 after appeal periods lapsed, citing the determination letter, the expected Form 25 filing and the company's financial and liquidity position. Companies that fall below Nasdaq's equity standard can appeal a delisting determination, but the board chose not to pursue that route, concluding that a voluntary delisting and deregistration would reduce the cost and burden of public company reporting.

Bolt said it expected the Form 25 to be filed around March 2, 2026, with the delisting becoming effective around March 12, 2026. It also planned to file a Form 15 to suspend and then terminate its SEC reporting obligations, with deregistration becoming effective 90 days after that filing. After deregistration the company's reporting obligations under the Exchange Act would end, and any trading in its securities would occur outside a national securities exchange.