DeFi Development NASDAQ: DFDV outlined its Solana-focused digital asset treasury strategy and broader ecosystem participation approach during a fireside chat hosted by Centri Business Consulting’s Mike Andrusko, Partner and Fintech and Digital Assets Practice Leader. The discussion featured Daniel Kang, the company’s Chief Strategy Officer, who described the firm’s origins, performance since launching its strategy, and how it seeks to differentiate itself from spot Solana exposure and ETF alternatives.
Company origin and Solana thesis
Kang said the company—referred to during the event as “DeFi Dev Corp”—was formed from an idea by co-founders Joseph Onorati (CEO) and Parker (COO) to create a digital asset treasury company. Kang recounted that he joined the effort after leaving his prior employer, Kraken Crypto Exchange, and helped raise an initial “$42 million convertible round.”
According to Kang, the company became “the first Solana digital asset treasury company in the United States” and “the very first non-Bitcoin treasury company in the United States.” He said that “since inception of the strategy,” the company has delivered “about 600% equity returns since early April of last year,” and described it as “the only Solana digital asset treasury company to deliver positive equity returns since inception.”
In explaining the asset choice, Kang characterized Solana as a high-usage network that traditional finance may not know well. He framed it as infrastructure where “fractions of a cent” can conduct a transaction, “as fast or faster than Visa,” and offered a shorthand: “If Bitcoin stores value, Solana moves it.”
Why Solana instead of Bitcoin or a basket approach
Kang said the decision to focus on SOL rather than Bitcoin was both “tactical and fundamental.” Tactically, he argued that the “Bitcoin treasury strategy playbook had largely been won” by Strategy and Michael Saylor, comparing the dynamic to running with a football while “an NFL linebacker” stands in front of you. He said the firm chose what he called “the open field.”
Fundamentally, Kang said Solana’s valuation appeared disconnected from its activity and usage, noting it is “call it 4%” of Bitcoin’s market cap and a “fraction” of Ethereum’s market cap, despite what he described as “more usage, more revenue generated, more daily active users, more developers on the platform.”
He also explained why the company did not pursue a basket of cryptocurrencies, citing both messaging complexity and a preference for concentrated bets. “It already takes a while to explain Solana,” he said, arguing that adding multiple assets would increase the “education hurdle.”
How the company aims to outperform spot SOL exposure
Andrusko asked why investors would choose the company versus a Solana ETF or spot SOL holdings. Kang said his early view of Strategy as an “access” vehicle changed after observing that Strategy’s “multiple to net asset value” expanded even after Bitcoin ETFs began trading. For Kang, that suggested a treasury company’s value proposition is not solely about access to the underlying asset.
He offered a metaphor: owning spot crypto or an ETF is like “sitting on a life raft on a river,” while buying a digital asset treasury company is like buying “a speedboat”—still exposed to the current, but able to “accelerate” or “decelerate.”
Kang said the key is whether the company can “compound your exposure on a per share basis.” He stated that DeFi Development’s “North Star” is “SOL per share growth,” likening it to Strategy’s “BTC yield.”
Ecosystem participation: validators, on-chain deployment, and organic yield
Kang said the company’s approach differs from a typical digital asset treasury model because Solana holdings can be deployed across the network’s ecosystem. He noted the firm has “even own[ed] our own validator infrastructure,” allowing it to stake its SOL to its validators, which he compared to “owning your own Bitcoin miners” on a proof-of-stake network—while asserting the “unit economics are far, far better.”
He added that additional delegated stake—whether from the firm’s treasury or from third parties—is “effectively 100% pure incremental free cash flow.” Kang said this creates an “organic component” to the business and argued that even without raising additional capital, the firm could grow “anywhere from 8%-11%” annualized on a go-forward basis.
On risk management for on-chain strategies, Kang said the primary issue is “smart contract risk.” He emphasized diversification across protocols and stated the company has disclosed that “more than 15% of our treasury is deployed on-chain today,” but not at levels like “50%,” and not concentrated in a single protocol. He also described being able to “deploy and move very, very fast,” citing an example in which a Q3 on-chain strategy generated “an incremental 100-150 basis points of net interest margin on our SOL,” but was wound down after it became unprofitable around “October 10th” when “everything nuked in crypto.”
Financing approach, Apyx investment, and legislative comments
Kang said the company is “not afraid to take on leverage,” particularly in bear markets, but stressed the importance of “intelligent leverage.” He criticized short-term margin loans that can be called after a sharp SOL drawdown, and said the firm’s convertible debt is “all unsecured,” with “low coupon” and “five-year duration,” which he said could help it “weather a prolonged bear market.”
When asked about a new protocol-related arrangement, Kang said the firm made a “strategic investment” in Apyx of “less than 1% of our treasury.” He described Apyx as a “dividend-backed dollar” whose collateral basket consists of “digital asset treasury preferred equity.” Kang pointed to Strategy’s preferred equity instrument “STRK,” citing “about $6.3 billion of notional outstanding” and “11.5% dividends paid monthly,” and said Apyx is part of the company’s stated goal of bridging traditional finance and DeFi by bringing a “TradFi yield product on-chain.” He said Apyx’s stable token, “apxUSD,” had surpassed “$140 million” in supply and described a two-token model where users lock apxUSD and receive a yield-bearing token that passes through dividends.
On potential future benefits, Kang said the company has “an S1 outstanding” related to preferred equity and that its preferred equity “could be a candidate” for Apyx’s collateral basket in the future, though he offered “no comments on timing.” He later reiterated that a preferred equity offering is “top of mind” and “a top priority,” while noting that at current valuation levels across the sector, the company is “probably shying away from aggressive equity issuances.”
In response to a question on crypto legislation, Kang said, “We oppose the Clarity Act,” adding that he did not have time to fully explain but referenced Onorati’s long history in the space and “deep thoughts” about “asking permission from the government.”
Looking ahead, Kang said that over the next 12 to 24 months—while stressing “this is not a forward-looking statement”—he would hope the firm’s treasury is measured “in the billions of dollars rather than the hundreds of millions of dollars.” He also referenced company guidance “effective as of March 31st” targeting “one SOL per share by December 2028,” describing scale as part of the path to that objective.
About DeFi Development NASDAQ: DFDV
We are a B2B fintech marketplace connecting commercial property borrowers and lenders with a human touch. We seek to revolutionize the commercial real estate lending market by making it hyper-efficient, transparent, and accessible to all rather than the few. Through our online platform, we provide technology that connects commercial mortgage borrowers looking for capital to refinance, build, or purchase commercial property, including, but not limited to, apartment buildings, to commercial property lenders.
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