Companies pile into creating solana versions of Michael Saylor’s Strategy

The playbook of Michael Saylor’s bitcoin-buying firm Strategy has extended to the solana ecosystem. 

This week, three companies announced solana acquisitions. On Tuesday, publicly traded Canadian firm SOL Strategies announced the acquisition of nearly $18.3 million worth of solana at an average price of about $149 per token. 

The same day, consumer goods company Upexi said it increased its treasury of solana by $30 million, bumping its total holdings to 201,500 tokens worth about $30 million. Upexi still has upward of $60 million in cash reserves for additional near-term investment into solana, its press release reported. 

Meanwhile, DeFi Development Corp, which was known as Janover until April 22, also picked up 82,405 solana for nearly $11.2 million and said on Monday it agreed to acquire a solana validator business for $3.5 million. DeFi Development Corp holds 400,091 tokens representing roughly $59 million.

The three companies each plan on earning solana rewards through staking or by running validators (computers that help maintain and secure the solana network).

The price of solana, the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, with more than $76 billion, has increased more than 36% in the past 30 days, though today it’s largely flat, hovering around the $145 level.

“Our goal is to acquire and HODL as many SOL as possible,” Upexi CEO Allan Marshall said in the press release. “With over $60 million of cash available for near-term SOL purchases and planned future accretive raises, Upexi is well positioned to accelerate the accumulation of SOL and further its lead as the canonical Solana treasury company.”

SOL Strategies’ purchase follows the company completing an initial $20 million closing of its $500 million convertible note facility aimed at purchasing SOL tokens to be staked on the firm’s validators, according to its press release. Similarly, Upexi’s increase in its solana holdings occurred after the closing of a $100 million private offering from crypto venture capital firms like GSR. 

SOL Strategies, Upexi, and DeFi Development Corp are mirroring Michael Saylor’s Strategy, a corporate firm initially known as a business software enterprise that has shifted its attention to becoming a bitcoin powerhouse. 

Strategy started accumulating bitcoin in August 2020. Since then, it’s become the largest corporate bitcoin holder. The latest purchase was announced on Monday, when Saylor revealed that Strategy scooped up an additional 1,895 bitcoin, bringing its total to 555,450 bitcoin worth about $52.7 billion.

Sage D. Young is a crypto journalist who’s written for CoinDesk and Unchained.