Everyone is learning from micro-strategy, but no one is actually micro-strategy.
Written by: Bright, Foresight News
On June 24, the stock price of Solana Treasury Company Upexi (stock code: UPXI) dropped over 60% during trading, ultimately closing at $3.97. It is reported that the reason for Upexi's flash crash was that prior investors registered 43.85 million shares for resale, which already equaled the company's initial circulating share count in April.
Ironically, on June 17, Wall Street brokerage Cantor rated Solana Treasury companies DeFi Development, Upexi, and Sol Strategies, all giving them 'buy' ratings. The brokerage set a target price of $16 for Upexi. Analysts led by Thomas Shinske wrote: 'We believe that the future of finance will be on-chain, with Solana being the preferred chain.' Cantor pointed out that Solana's biggest competitor is the Ethereum blockchain, but its technology is far superior to its larger peers across various metrics, making it more meaningful to use Solana as a financial asset than to use Ether.
The earliest hoarders of coins have begun to retreat
Upexi and its predecessor Grove, Inc. is a company focused on the development, manufacturing, and distribution of consumer products, owning multiple innovative brands, such as the medicinal mushroom product brand Cure Mushrooms, the pet care brand LuckyTail, and the Praxanthine series featuring energy gummies, and sells products through e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Shopify, as well as its own channels. As of April 18, 2025, its market value was only $3 million, and it was in a state of continuous net loss, on the verge of delisting.
On April 21, Upexi announced it received $100 million in financing led by the well-known crypto market maker GSR, about 95% of which will be used to establish and operate the Solana Treasury reserves. This news directly stimulated Upexi's stock price, which surged over 600% during trading that day.
Upexi's approach is to 'go all in on Sol.' Among all Sol Treasury companies, Upexi is the one that most resembles Solana's version of micro-strategy. Upexi has signed securities purchase agreements with some investors to issue and sell 43.8596 million shares of common stock or pre-purchased warrants at a price of $2.28 per share, expecting to raise as much as $100 million. It plans to use approximately $5.3 million of this for working capital and debt repayment, with the remaining funds to build the company's Solana treasury system and increase holdings of Solana assets.
'What comes quickly goes quickly.' In June, Upexi's investors registered 43.85 million shares for resale, exactly matching the company's initial circulating share count in April. The prospectus submitted on Monday showed that the original buyers now hope to sell 35.97 million shares of common stock and 7.89 million shares linked to pre-paid warrants. The document noted that if the warrant holders exercise their warrants, Upexi would only receive $7,890, and no proceeds would be generated from the sale of shares.
Upexi stated in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: 'We will not sell any common stock in this offering, nor will we receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by selling shareholders.'
Upexi is doing poorly, but several other Sol Treasury companies rated 'buy' by Cantor are also suffering.
Sol Strategies, which began hoarding coins early, is relatively stable, having initially relied on external acquisitions to expand its business and later shifted to relying on raised funds and natural growth brought by Sol infrastructure. The current price is down 60.8% from its historical peak.
Among them, DeFi Development, which transformed from a real estate company, is currently down 53.6% from its historical peak but also experienced a 20.88% plunge yesterday.
And the current stock price of 'Ethereum micro-strategy' SharpLink Gaming is also unsatisfactory.
On June 13, SharpLink Gaming submitted an S-3ASR registration statement to the U.S. SEC, authorizing the resale of up to 58.6997 million shares related to PIPE financing. This means that over 100 PIPE investors could sell their holdings at an opportune time. Panic spread rapidly, with SharpLink Gaming's stock price falling over 70% during trading that day. Although SharpLink's board chairman, Consensys CEO Joseph Lubin, clarified that this document was just a routine registration process after PIPE, meant to 'pre-register shares for potential resale,' it still regrettably proved that SharpLink Gaming, which had previously surged over 40 times, was merely a flash in the pan.
Recently started hoarding coins, still madly entering the market
Although ETH and Sol's 'micro-strategies' have failed, new altcoin treasury companies are still entering the market out of FOMO.
On June 24, following earlier market rumors of 'multiple BNB strategic reserve companies being formed,' Nano Labs Ltd (stock code: NA) announced it had signed convertible note subscription agreements with several investors to issue a total of $500 million in convertible notes. The notes have a term of 360 days, with no interest accruing on the principal before maturity, and holders can choose to convert the notes into Class A common stock of the company at an initial conversion price of $20 per share during the term. Nano Labs aims to initially acquire $1 billion worth of BNB through this financing and private placement, targeting to hold 5% to 10% of the total circulating supply of BNB in the long term.
Upon the release of this news, Nano Labs' pre-market stock price immediately soared 65%.
On June 23, eye medication digital technology company Eyenovia (stock code: EYEN) announced it had signed a securities purchase agreement for $50 million to conduct a PIPE 'public equity private placement' for qualified institutional investors, which will be used to establish its Hype reserve plan. The company recorded only $56,000 in total revenue for the entire year of 2024, with a net loss of $50 million and liabilities exceeding $10 million. The cash flow has dried up, coupled with the failure of new product trials, putting Eyenovia on the brink of delisting for multiple reasons.
The strategy of transforming into HYPE reserves gave Eyenovia a 'life-saving' opportunity, and after the related news was released, Eyenovia's stock price soared 134% in a single day.
As the U.S. crypto environment gradually relaxes, the craze for coin stocks is far from fading. However, the continued poor performance of early 'on-chain micro-strategy' players has sounded the alarm for later entrants.
