Publicly Traded Solana Treasury Firm Is ‘Showing What’s Next’ for Strategy’s Bitcoin Model

DeFi Development Corp, a publicly traded firm building a Solana treasury, says that it is taking a different path from other crypto treasury vehicles, proactively pushing its way into the Solana ecosystem and maintaining laser focus on its “north star” of maximizing SOL per share. 

Established in early April, the firm’s Solana stash now boasts more than 620,000 SOL valued at around $90 million, making it the largest Solana treasury among publicly traded entities.

In an interview this week on “FOMO Hour” from Decrypt’s sister company Rug Radio, Investor Relations Lead Dan Kang explained how it’s approaching the increasingly popular crypto treasury model—pioneered by Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy)—differently than some others in the space.

“We used to say we’re sort of a next-gen MicroStrategy,” Kang said. “But I really think of ourselves as the first true on-chain-to-TradFi bridge.” 

Its efforts to connect the world of traditional finance and the on-chain ecosystem have been different than that of other crypto treasury vehicles, which oftentimes rely on financing and capital markets to accumulate and stash an underlying asset like Bitcoin. 

Instead, DeFi Development Corp. is proactively embedding itself in the Solana ecosystem, most notably through its Solana validator set, which it acquired in May for $3.5 million. 

“A lot of the Bitcoin treasury vehicles that exist today are highly capital markets dependent to grow their underlying Bitcoin holdings,” said Kang. “Versus with us, not to say we won’t tap the capital market playbook… but by virtue of running our own validator infrastructure, we actually don’t need to tap the capital markets to keep growing our underlying SOL per share.”

The firm’s ability to tap into a robust on-chain ecosystem and earn yield via a proof-of-stake asset is another reason it chose Solana, eschewing the limitations of some Bitcoin treasury vehicles. Plus, there was no reason to compete with Strategy, said Kang, who likened the firm and its monstrous $62 billion Bitcoin treasury to an NFL lineman. 

“If I hand you a football, would you want to play running back against an NFL lineman, or would you rather run the ball down the field with no one in the way?” said Kang. “Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy—they’re the NFL lineman in the Bitcoin vehicle space. Hats off to those who want to take them on, but we intend to become the big behemoth in the Solana treasury space.” 

The firm appears on its way, having amassed its $90 million treasury in just two months since announcing plans to pivot towards a Solana strategy, as the AI-driven real estate platform rebranded from Janover. In that time, on top of the validator acquisition, it also launched its own liquid staking token, partnered with notable Solana meme coin Bonk, and established a $5 billion equity line of credit for future Solana acquisitions.  

“If MicroStrategy showed what is possible in the crypto treasury space,” Kang added, “DeFi Development Corp. is here to show them what is next.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward