Solana is accelerating its efforts to attract institutional adoption, with several well-known crypto VCs entering the market with low-priced chips and substantial funds, actively laying out SOL treasury strategies.

Written by: Nancy, PANews

After Bitcoin and Ethereum opened the growth flywheel with treasury strategies, many altcoins have rushed to follow suit. Currently, Solana is also speeding into the fast lane of institutional adoption, as more crypto giants announce their entry with low-priced chips and massive funds, which may bring a new round of market confidence and capital momentum.

The SOL treasury strategy is about to accelerate its implementation, with the foundation offering discounted "purchases."

Over the past year, Bitcoin treasury companies led by Strategy and Ethereum reserve enterprises represented by BitMine have successfully validated their models in the market, attracting a large influx of capital. Now, this trend is rapidly extending to the Solana ecosystem, with a batch of emerging SOL DAT (crypto asset treasury) preparing to enter the market.

On August 25, U.S. publicly listed company Sharps Technology announced the completion of over $400 million in PIPE private placement financing, aiming to create the world's largest Solana digital asset treasury. This round of financing attracted participation from several well-known institutions, including ParaFi, Pantera, Monarq, FalconX, Phoenix Capital, RockawayXa, and Primitive Ventures. Additionally, Sharps signed a letter of intent with the Solana Foundation to subscribe for $50 million of SOL at a 15% discount to the 30-day average price.

Following Sharps' actions, there are reports that Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital are negotiating with potential supporters to raise about $1 billion to purchase SOL and plan to establish a digital asset fund management company through the acquisition of an undisclosed publicly listed company. According to Bloomberg, these companies have hired Cantor Fitzgerald as the lead underwriter, with the transaction expected to be completed in early September.

Notably, Galaxy Digital was one of the first buyers of SOL locked by FTX, having raised $620 million last year to set up a dedicated fund for acquiring SOL tokens sold during FTX's bankruptcy, and this year has conducted large-scale asset swaps, converting over $100 million worth of ETH into SOL. Jump Crypto and Multicoin Capital are also significant supporters of the Solana ecosystem, with the former actively participating in ecosystem liquidity support and the latter being an early institutional investor with a deep investment portfolio in the Solana ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Pantera Capital is also planning a project of up to $1.25 billion to transform a publicly listed company into a Solana investment company, raising funds in two phases: first raising $500 million, then supplementing with $750 million in warrants.

As an early investment institution in Solana, Pantera holds a large number of low-cost chips. It was previously reported that in 2024, it invested $250 million to acquire a large amount of SOL from the FTX Estate at a discounted price of $59.95 (subject to a four-year vesting period) and also purchased about 2,000 SOL tokens at $64 from the auction of FTX's bankruptcy assets. Prior to this, Pantera Capital disclosed that it had invested over $300 million in DAT companies, including Sharplink Gaming, Twenty One Capital, DeFi Development Corp, and Sharps Technology.

It is evident that these important institutional supporters of Solana are concentrating their layouts, not only with considerable capital scale but also with chip advantages, and have received official support from the Solana Foundation, allowing them to maintain strategic flexibility amid market fluctuations while promoting ecosystem expansion and new capital entry, thereby further enhancing Solana's liquidity and market recognition. However, these institutions hold a large amount of SOL locked chips, and there may be certain market risks associated with exchanging liquidity and stock prices through DAT.

Stock prices and token prices show lackluster performance, with insufficient scale and appeal for increased holdings.

With the fervent emotions brought by the concept of coin stocks, many reserve-listed companies have seen their stock prices soar, and token prices have risen in tandem. However, the stock price performance of leading Solana reserve companies has been relatively flat. In the past month, Upexi's stock price rose by 29.25%, DeFi Development fell by 12.59%, and Phoenix Group increased by about 6.63%; SOL Strategies saw a decline of 29.25%.

At the same time, the performance of SOL token prices has also been weak. Over the past year, SOL has only risen by 17.9%, far below Bitcoin's 73.2% and Ethereum's 62.3% during the same period, and is significantly less impressive compared to the market performance during the previous MEME frenzy, indicating that the existing Solana reserve companies have limited impact on boosting SOL.

The reasons for this situation are mainly constrained by the scale of increased holdings and market appeal.

On one hand, the scale of increased holdings by existing Solana reserve companies is still relatively limited, and most belong to emerging players. Although several publicly listed companies have begun to lay out Solana strategic reserves, there are only a handful of companies with holdings exceeding $10 million. According to public data, Upexi holds over 2 million SOL, valued at over $377 million; DeFi Development holds over 1.42 million SOL, valued at over $267 million; Phoenix Group holds over 630,000 SOL, valued at nearly $119 million; SOL Strategies holds close to 401,000 SOL, valued at over $75.597 million. Large-scale increases in holdings and endorsements from well-known institutions often convey strong market signals, amplifying investor psychological expectations. In other words, the larger the capital scale and the higher the exposure, the more significant its market influence, effectively driving token price performance.

Secondly, Solana lacks influential figures like Michael Saylor, the founder of Strategy in the Bitcoin space, or Tom Lee, the chairman of BitMine in the Ethereum space, who have strong appeal. Saylor and Lee not only possess capital strength but also transform institutional strategies into market confidence through public speaking, media influence, and personal branding, creating a replicable investment effect.

Currently, Solana reserve companies lack individuals or institutional brands with similar appeal and authority, making it difficult to form a confidence premium. Upexi attempted to enhance its influence by inviting BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes to serve on its advisory board, hoping to leverage his recognition in the crypto circle. However, Hayes' main influence remains concentrated in the crypto trading field, and his reputation and resources in traditional capital markets are limited, making it difficult to create a cross-market guiding effect. In contrast, CEO Novogratz, who successfully led Galaxy to go public on NASDAQ, is seen as an ideal candidate, having worked in traditional finance for over thirty years, previously at Goldman Sachs and Fortress, accumulating rich expertise and extensive networks.

However, the Solana reserve market has yet to form a leading "micro-strategy," indicating that the entire ecosystem still has considerable narrative space, which may attract more institutional investors to participate. Additionally, the increasing probability of Solana's spot ETF approval will also enhance market confidence in SOL and related reserve companies, thereby amplifying the positive effects of capital entry.

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