The Solana treasury movement has transformed from a trickle into a torrent.
About four months ago, Sol Strategies was busy building a Solana fund management company. Now, competition has become more intense and quite meme-oriented.
In the record of 'unexpected things', a listed company collaborating with a meme coin to operate blockchain infrastructure is quite remarkable. However, just less than two weeks ago, another Solana fund management company, DeFi Development Corp (DFDV), partnered with the Solana meme coin Bonk.
They are not playing around.
Days ago, DFDV announced it would allocate part of its SOL holdings into liquid staking tokens (LST), which can be used for DeFi applications or transfers while earning yields and staking rewards.
Corporate fund management has fully realized crypto nativity. From companies purchasing Bitcoin, to operating validator nodes, partnering with meme coins, and now pioneering liquid staking strategies.
Fad
DeFi Development Corporation (a real estate company, renamed Janover in April 2025) made its largest Solana purchase on May 12, adding 172,670 SOL to its treasury. This brought its total holdings to 609,233 SOL, valued at over 100 million USD.
This accounts for one-third of the company's total market value.
The stock market reacted enthusiastically to this.
Since its name change, DFDV's stock has soared 30 times in the past two months, mainly due to its shift in focus towards investing in Solana.
Canadian company Sol Strategies is also not to be outdone, having submitted a preliminary IPO prospectus to local securities regulators to raise up to 1 billion USD to further invest in the Solana ecosystem.
New participants are constantly joining.
The Nasdaq-listed edtech company Classover Holdings has planned a Solana-centered strategy and has secured 400 million USD in financing; meanwhile, DIGITALX has increased its SOL holdings to accelerate staking yields.
Why such enthusiasm? There are many reasons.
Does the SOL treasury really make sense?
Yield game
The difference between the Solana treasury and Bitcoin strategies is that they can actually generate returns.
DIGITALX emphasizes its annual staking yield of 7-9%, expecting an additional income of 800,000 AUD per year. In contrast, Bitcoin's yield is 0%, and you'll start to see its allure.
These companies are not satisfied with simple staking. They are fully committed to building infrastructure. DeFi Development's liquid staking initiatives represent 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 publicly traded company to hold Solana liquid staking tokens.
Collaboration with BONK? This will allow both parties to collectively increase delegated equity, which refers to the number of Solana tokens committed to their validator nodes, while sharing rewards in the process. It's a combination of community engagement and fund management.
"DFDV and BONK are both leaders in their fields. Through collaboration, we can benefit from each other's unique positioning and brand recognition," said Parker White, Chief Information Officer and Chief Operating Officer of DeFi Development, to Decrypt.
Validators and governance roles
These companies are not just buying and holding SOL—they are becoming infrastructure providers.
On May 5, DeFi Development Corp announced that it had reached a final agreement to acquire the Solana validator business, which has an average delegated equity of about 500,000 SOL (75.5 million USD).
This creates a 'flywheel' effect for the company: reinvesting yields to accumulate more SOL, thereby further expanding validator capacity. This stands in stark contrast to Michael Saylor's Strategy.
By operating validator nodes, companies can:
Impacting network governance
Establishing relationships with projects
Potentially incubating or investing in Solana-based startups
Creating additional income sources beyond treasury appreciation
The story of speed and scale
Solana's transaction processing speed is faster, and transaction fees are much lower than those of competitors like Ethereum. For companies that are not only focused on capital value, this opens up possibilities unmatched by Bitcoin.
Unlike Bitcoin, which is primarily used for transferring value across networks, Solana can support decentralized finance applications as well as consumer applications, games, and other scenarios.
Different gameplay
Each company has a different strategy in this game:
DeFi Development Corp is a radical innovator.
In addition to accumulating 609,233 SOL, they are also pioneering liquid staking and meme coin partnerships. DeFi Development Corp CEO Joseph Onorati told Decrypt: "The purchase of Solana exceeding 100 million USD is an important milestone—but this is just the beginning."
SOL Strategies adopts an institutionalized approach, focusing on becoming a top staking platform with mature fund management strategies. Their submitted IPO prospectus of 1 billion USD indicates that their ambitions go far beyond mere accumulation.
DIGITALX showcases yield optimization strategies, meticulously calculated staking returns, and emphasizes its profit potential to shareholders. They view SOL as a dividend-paying stock.
Risk profile
However, it's not that simple. Let's have a realistic and sober analysis.
First, the macro trap: these strategies thrive on cheap capital. Most SOL buyers raise funds through convertible bonds or equity financing. When liquidity runs dry—and it eventually always does—everything ends.
Second, the regulatory time bomb: Marco Santori stated that the company's SOL fund management strategy allows it to operate in ways that 'simple, passive' funds cannot achieve. 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 enticing 7-9% yield will shrink. This is common economic sense: an increase in validator supply means a decrease in returns for each validator.
The infrastructure burden is also real. Running validator nodes is not passive income—it is an operational business that requires technical overhead, upgrade requirements, and faces significant risks of reductions. Miss the update window? That's money gone.
Dan Kang stated on the Lightspeed podcast that DeFi Development Corp's trading volatility is as high as 700%. This makes Bitcoin look like a stablecoin. Given Solana's history of network failures, you are betting on both price and reliability.
Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) games will ultimately favor the largest participants, just like on Ethereum.
Moreover, there is competition. As of May 21, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not approved any Solana spot ETF, but once approved, these fund management companies will lose their unique selling advantage. If you can buy a Solana ETF, why buy DFDV? But the same logic applies to Strategy betting on Bitcoin, doesn't it?
Perspective
The ongoing phenomenon of Solana fund management indicates that it has surpassed the previously passive balance sheet allocation. They have transformed into proactive infrastructure investments capable of generating real returns.
Its innovation lies in packaging complex DeFi operations into a company structure that people are familiar with.
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 efficiency, and their own operational excellence. When it works, it's wonderful—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 impending yield compression will benefit the most from this game. Those expecting today's high yields to continue into tomorrow and beyond are making a strategic mistake.
When Bitcoin's 50% annual yield is compared to 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 complexities for extra 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 yields, and occasionally collaborate with dog-themed cryptocurrencies.
