Written by: Token Dispatch, Prathik Desai
Translated by: Block unicorn
Preface
The Solana Treasury Movement has transformed from a trickle to a torrent.
About four months ago, we reported that Sol Strategies was busy building a Solana fund management company. Today, the competition has become more intense, and it has a distinctly meme-like character.
In the record of "unexpected things," a listed company collaborating with a meme Token to operate blockchain infrastructure is quite eye-catching. Just less than two weeks ago, another Solana fund management company, DeFi Development Corp (DFDV), partnered with the Solana meme Token Bonk.
They are not playing around.
A few days ago, DFDV announced that it would allocate part of its SOL holdings to liquid staking Tokens, which can be used for DeFi applications or transfers, while also earning yields and staking rewards.
Corporate fund management has become completely crypto-native. From companies buying Bitcoin, to operating validator nodes, collaborating with meme Tokens, and now companies pioneering liquidity staking strategies.
In this article, we will delve into the significance of holding Solana at a time when most other companies (including those related to former US President Donald Trump) are rushing into Bitcoin.
The Trend
DeFi Development Corporation (a real estate company renamed to Janover in April 2025) made its largest Solana purchase on May 12th, adding 172,670 SOL to its treasury. This brings its total holdings to 609,233 SOL, valued at over $100 million.
This represents one-third of the company's total market capitalization.
The stock market reacted enthusiastically.
Since its renaming, DFDV's stock has soared 30 times in the past two months. This is primarily due to its shift in focus to investing in Solana.
Image source: @TradingView
The Canadian company Sol Strategies is not to be outdone, submitting a preliminary prospectus to local securities regulators to raise up to $1 billion to further invest in the Solana ecosystem.
New participants continue to join.
The NASDAQ-listed edtech company Classover Holdings has planned a Solana-centric strategy and has secured $400 million in funding; DIGITALX has increased its SOL holdings to accelerate staking rewards.
Why such enthusiasm? There are many reasons.
Is the SOL Treasury Really Meaningful?
Yield Game
The difference between Solana Treasury and Bitcoin strategies is that they can actually generate yields.
DIGITALX emphasizes its annual staking yield of 7-9%, expecting to generate an additional 800,000 Australian dollars in income. In contrast, Bitcoin's yield is 0%, and you'll start to see its attraction.
These companies are not satisfied with simple staking. They are fully building infrastructure. DeFi Development's liquidity staking initiative represents the next stage of evolution: earning yields while maintaining liquidity, truly having the best of both worlds.
With this move, the company becomes the first listed company to hold Solana liquid staking Tokens.
The collaboration with BONK? This will allow both parties to jointly increase delegated stake, that is, the number of Solana Tokens promised to their validator nodes, and share rewards in the process. This is a combination of community participation and fund management.
"DFDV and BONK are leaders in their respective domains. Through collaboration, we can benefit from each other's unique positioning and brand recognition," said Parker White, Chief Information Officer and COO of DeFi Development, to Decrypt.
Validator and Governance Roles
These companies are not just buying and holding SOL—they are becoming infrastructure providers.
On May 5th, DeFi Development Corp announced a final agreement to acquire a Solana validator business with an average delegated stake of approximately 500,000 SOL ($75.5 million).
This creates a "flywheel" effect for the company: reinvesting yields to accumulate more SOL, thereby further expanding the validator's capacity. This is in stark contrast to Michael Saylor's Strategy.
By operating validator nodes, companies can:
Influence network governance
Establish relationships with projects
Potentially incubate or invest in Solana-based startups
Create additional income sources beyond treasury appreciation
A Story of Speed and Scale
Solana processes transactions faster and has much lower transaction fees compared to competing blockchains like Ethereum. For companies looking beyond just fund value, this opens possibilities that Bitcoin cannot match.
Unlike Bitcoin, which is primarily used for cross-network value transfer, Solana can support decentralized finance applications and more scenarios like consumer applications and games.
Different Approaches
Each company has a different strategy in this game:
DeFi Development Corp is an aggressive innovator.
In addition to accumulating 609,233 SOL, they are pioneering liquidity staking and meme Token partnerships. DeFi Development Corp CEO Joseph Onorati told Decrypt: "Breaking the $100 million mark in Solana purchases is a significant milestone—but this is just the beginning."
SOL Strategies adopts an institutional approach, focusing on becoming a top staking platform with mature fund management strategies. The $1 billion prospectus they submitted indicates ambitions far beyond simple accumulation.
DIGITALX demonstrates a yield optimization strategy, carefully calculating staking yields and emphasizing its yield potential to shareholders. They view SOL as a dividend-paying stock.
Risk Profile
However, things are not that simple. Let's have a dose of realistic analysis.
First, macro trap: These strategies live on cheap capital. Most SOL buyers raise funds through convertible bonds or equity financing instruments. When liquidity dries up—and it will eventually dry up—everything ends.
Second, regulatory time bomb: Marco Santori states that the companies' SOL fund management strategies allow them to operate in ways that "simple, passive" funds cannot. This is fine until regulators think your "fund management" looks like an unregistered investment fund.
Third, yield compression is imminent. As more validators join, that tempting 7-9% yield will shrink. This is economic common sense: increased validator supply means reduced returns for each validator.
Infrastructure burden is also real. Running a validator node is not passive income—it's an operational business requiring technical expenses, upgrade requirements, and facing significant slashing risks. Miss an update window? Your money is gone.
Dan Kang on the Lightspeed podcast notes that DeFi Development Corp's trading volatility is as high as 700%. This makes Bitcoin look like a stablecoin. Considering Solana's network failure history, you're betting on both price and reliability.
The Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) game will ultimately favor the largest participants, just like on Ethereum.
Moreover, there's competition. As of May 21st, the SEC has not approved any Solana spot ETFs, but once approved, these fund management companies will lose their unique selling point. If you can buy a Solana ETF, why buy DFDV? But isn't Strategy's Bitcoin bet the same reasoning?
Our Perspective
The ongoing Solana fund management phenomenon indicates that it has gone beyond past passive balance sheet configurations. They have transformed into active infrastructure investments capable of generating actual yields.
Its innovation lies in packaging complex DeFi operations into corporate structures familiar to people.
But we must make one thing clear: this is a high-wire act. These companies are simultaneously betting on Solana's price, network stability, validator economic viability, and their own operational excellence. When it works, it's beautiful—a single asset can generate multiple income streams. When it fails, you have to explain to shareholders why your "treasury" needs a DevOps team.
Companies that can efficiently scale validator operations while addressing the upcoming yield compression will benefit the most from this game. Those companies expecting today's high yields to continue into tomorrow and beyond are making a strategic mistake.
When comparing Bitcoin's 50% annual yield with Solana's almost zero yield over the past 12 months, it reminds us that yield is not everything. But for companies willing to accept operational complexity for additional returns, the Solana treasury offers something Bitcoin can never provide: cash flow from day one.
This is Treasury 2.0—a strategy that allows your balance sheet to run code, earn rewards, and occasionally collaborate with dog-themed cryptocurrencies.
