The listed liquor retailer LQR House located in Miami Beach, Florida has not been particularly peaceful lately.
On July 14, 2025, SEC filings revealed that Compound founder Robert Leshner cumulatively purchased about 600,000 shares of the Nasdaq-listed company LQR House Inc. (LQR) with personal funds, holding a stake of 56.9%, thus becoming the largest shareholder.
According to the submitted 13D form, Leshner's total investment this time was approximately $2.03 million, with some shares purchased through Interactive Brokers at $3.77 per share.
This news caused LQR House's stock price to rise 45% in Monday's trading, reaching $10 before the market closed on Wednesday, doubling its purchase price.
However, Leshner's acquisition has not been smooth sailing, quickly unfolding into a capital offensive and defensive drama surrounding control and clashes with the board.
The battle of control and counter-control
'I purchased a controlling stake in $YHC, a low-market, somewhat disreputable liquor company. My plan is to change the board and help the company explore new strategies.' On July 14, Leshner expressed his 'intent to change personnel' on the day the SEC announcement was made, and warned retail investors: 'I haven't done extensive due diligence; there are indications that the company is up to no good. But please be particularly careful with any low-market companies; I may lose all my investment, and you might too.'
According to SEC documents, Leshner plans to propose the removal of all current board members and nominate a new board team through written consent or a special shareholders' meeting, in accordance with corporate bylaws and Nevada state law.
Leshner also emphasized that he has not yet reached any specific agreements with other shareholders or third parties, but does not rule out further communication and collaboration with relevant parties in the future.
However, Leshner's plans seem to have encountered some obstacles.
On July 14, LQR House submitted a supplementary prospectus to the SEC. According to the document, LQR House stated that the number of shares available for sale through sales agents would increase to $46 million, excluding shares worth $2,700 sold under the ATM agreement prior to the supplementary document date.
Typically, ATM issuance is a means for listed companies to raise capital flexibly, but at this sensitive moment, it clearly carries deeper implications.
After reviewing the supplementary materials, Leshner stated, 'I disagree with LQR House's approach to ATM issuance (selling shares), I believe this is ineffective, and I am consulting with lawyers.' The next day, on July 15, LQR House's shareholder Kingbird Ventures LLC filed a lawsuit in a Florida court, accusing CEO Sean Dollinger and board members of abusing fiduciary duties, asset misappropriation, and violating corporate bylaws; requesting the court to freeze certain share changes and suspend board powers to prevent 'control hijacking.'
If the court rules for a temporary restraining order (TRO) or injunction, Leshner's plan to convene a special shareholders' meeting to remove the current board may be temporarily shelved.
Additionally, according to sources, the company may attempt to retaliate using a 'Poison Pill' strategy. The so-called 'Poison Pill' refers to a mechanism where, once a shareholder's stake reaches or exceeds a preset 'trigger line', the company automatically issues new shares to other shareholders (excluding the acquirer) at a significantly discounted price, thus diluting the acquirer's shareholding, increasing the acquisition cost, or even forcing them to abandon the acquisition.
However, Leshner's supporters are also not to be outdone.
On July 16, 2025, Makesy Capital announced the acquisition of 0.1% of LQR House shares and pledged to support Leshner's reforms. Meanwhile, Makesy Capital also launched a campaign online against LQR House CEO Sean Dollinger, claiming this would serve as a warning to CEOs of listed companies treating the public markets and investors as private piggy banks.
As of the time of writing, this battle of control and counter-control is still ongoing, with both sides carefully probing, wary that any careless decision could yield negative effects.
Why LQR House?
LQR House is a Nasdaq micro-cap company, with a market value that once fell below $3 million. Even after a recent surge, its market value is only around $11 million.
At first glance, this seems like a speculative game involving micro-cap stocks, but Robert Leshner's entry offers another possibility.
As the founder of Compound, Leshner was a pioneer of on-chain finance. He led Compound to ignite the DeFi lending trend and has actively explored the combination of DAO and RWA over the past two years. As crypto capital continues to seek deep integration with traditional markets, and crypto stocks flourish, this technology-originated DeFi pioneer chose to bet on LQR House. The reasons may be threefold:
First, the identity of a listed company. LQR House has the qualifications to be listed on Nasdaq, and the compliance channels have been opened. For crypto players wanting to enter traditional capital markets, this type of 'lightweight' listed company holds unique strategic value. By bypassing the high costs associated with IPOs or SPACs, and leveraging ready-made capital market channels, it is easier to become a springboard for funds, trust, and voice.
Secondly, the low threshold for controlling stakes and the loose equity structure. LQR House has a dispersed equity structure and a small float, making it easier for external capital to gain control quickly. This is highly attractive for investors looking to build a cross-border capital platform. Leshner acquired a 56.9% controlling stake for $2.03 million, which is far more cost-effective than most capital operation cases.
Lastly, the company itself has already made initial contact with crypto business. According to CoinDesk reports, LQR House announced a $1 million Bitcoin infusion into its treasury and activated crypto payment services. This means it has taken a step towards bridging digital assets and traditional retail, laying the foundation for extending into the crypto capital ecosystem.
Is the Compound version of MicroStrategy on the way?
Since MicroStrategy incorporated Bitcoin into its balance sheet and SBET became the new darling of the stock market, a trend of 'listed companies holding tokens' has swept through the global capital markets.
The biggest question the market is concerned about is: Will Leshner turn LQR House into the MicroStrategy of the DeFi realm? Will he incorporate $COMP or even crypto lending into LQR House to form a new asset reserve and capital operation model?
Of course, there is one thing that might be overlooked. In addition to being the founder of Compound, Leshner's latest title is the founder of Superstate.
Superstate, a company founded in 2023, is targeting the on-chain fund and compliant tokenized asset sector.
Unlike Compound, which targets pure DeFi users, Superstate is committed to providing institutional investors with blockchain-based traditional asset funds, with the first product being a tokenized version of a 'short-term U.S. Treasury Fund', directly targeting the traditional financial market.
Superstate has consistently emphasized keywords such as: on-chain compliance, asset tokenization, and institutional friendliness. Its ambition lies in bridging the connection between traditional finance and on-chain assets.
This may be Leshner's potential strategic direction for LQR House.
LQR House, as a ready-made Nasdaq-listed platform, holds the 'ticket' to traditional financial markets and can provide a display window for Superstate's compliant products, RWA business, or on-chain funds in the public capital markets.
The combination of the two means potentially creating a 'listed platform under Superstate', using the public market to drive traffic for on-chain products, and providing a legal and compliant secondary market channel for Superstate's fund-raising.
Furthermore, LQR House has previously ventured into crypto payments and digital asset positioning, which can also serve as a 'testing ground' or ecological application channel for Superstate products.
This is somewhat different from MicroStrategy writing Bitcoin into its balance sheet or SharpLink Gaming reserving Ethereum; Leshner may want to embed on-chain funds and tokenized assets into the capital operations of a listed company.
Truly bringing 'on-chain capital' into the traditional financial framework, creating a compliant DeFi-TradFi linkage model.
This will be a deeper experiment.
It's not just a story of holding tokens, but a story of capital.