Sol Strategies Plans $1B Raise

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Good Morning.

Everybody and their mom is yapping about Loudio, a (3,3) social yapping experiment powered by Kaito AI data. Click here to learn more about it. Meanwhile, Binance has finally listed HYPE futures, a super interesting move as HYPE takes more perp trading market share.

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: Sol Strategies Plans $1B Raise 💰️ 

• Founders Highlight: Kirill Gertman of Conduit 👨 

• Deal Flow: Telegram Eyes $1.5B Bond Raise 👀 

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WHAT MATTERS

Sol Strategies Plans $1B Raise

State of play: SOL Strategies, a Canadian investment firm, filed a prospectus to raise up to $1B to grow its Solana holdings. The company recently secured a $500M convertible note and spent $20M from it to buy over 122,000 SOL.

• SOL Strategies now holds 420,355 SOL.

• This week, SOL Strategies acquired 26,478 SOL for $4.7M and fully exited its Bitcoin position.

• Since shifting focus to Solana, Sol Strategies’ stock has jumped over 2,000% to $2.27. They say the raise is optional, with no immediate plans to issue new shares.

What’s next: Other L1 tokens with large treasuries on their balance sheet and a relatively higher free float (so tokens from the 2018-2020 era) will start copying this strategy to the best of their ability.

For builders and investors: It’s the most capital efficient way to acquire crypto assets per share, but the premium is going to get lower with every passing minute.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Kirill Gertman of Conduit

Intro: Kirill Gertman is the Founder and CEO of Coundit, a payments platform designed for businesses seeking faster, cheaper, and more transparent international transactions.

Previous background: Before Conduit, he held senior roles including VP of Products at BRD (acquired by Coinbase), where he drove rapid growth from 500K to 5M users and launched a B2B SaaS line.

• He was Chief Product Officer at Arival Bank and Head of Product at Eco, a fintech startup backed by top investors like a16z Crypto.

• Earlier, he transformed digital banking experiences at Eastern Labs, built a wearable fitness product at OMsignal (acquired by Honeywell), and guided personal finance product growth at BillGuard (acquired by Prosper).

• He also led creative growth at Beyond the Rack, scaling membership to 2M and sales to $30M annually.

The big idea: Kirill through Conduit aims to make cross-border business payments in stablecoins or local currencies nearly instant.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

INSIGHTS

Risks in The Acquisition Vehicle Meta

State of play: A new wave of acquisition vehicles is emerging in 2025, raising concerns about risky leverage and potential market instability reminiscent of past failures.

• Mippo from Blockworks highlights that, unlike Michael Saylor, who secured low-cost, unsecured financing with minimal liquidation risk, these new vehicles face tougher terms and a greater risk of forced selling.

• Investors driven by FOMO might overlook these dangers, fueling a feedback loop that could trigger a sell-off similar to the 2022 crash.

• While calling out these risks may help prevent a “grey swan” event, caution remains crucial.

DEAL FLOWS

Telegram Eyes $1.5B Bond Raise

Deal flows slowed down this week - we saw $100M in deals 💼 

Telegram aims to raise $1.5B through a new bond issuance, backed by investors like BlackRock, Mubadala, and Citadel.

• The funds will partly repay existing debt from 2021 bonds, with the new five-year bonds offering a 9% yield.

• This comes as Telegram partners with Elon Musk’s xAI to integrate Grok chatbot, securing a $300M deal plus subscription revenue.

• Telegram will earn 50% of xAI subscription income during the one-year partnership.

Deal flows in the past week:

• EGO tech, $800K Pre-Seed Round

• Rumi, $4.7M Pre-Seed Round

• Donut, $7M Pre-Seed Round

• Asigna, $3M Seed Round

• Hyperdrive, $6M Series A Round

• Conduit Pay, $36M Series A Round

• Ducat, $1.5M Strategic Round

• BlockSpaces, $2M Strategic Round

• Naoris Protocol, $3M Strategic Round

• Mirage Protocol, $1.6M Unknown Round

• Stablecorp, $1.8M Unknown Round

• H100 Group, $2.2M Unknown Round

• Oncade, $4M Unknown Round

• VOYA Games, $5M Unknown Round

• Beam Cash, $7M Unknown Round

• Roxom, $17.9M Unknown Round

QUICK BITES

• SEC moves to dismiss Binance litigation.

• Hyperliquid claims 80% of the DeFi perp market.

• US spot Bitcoin ETFs see $358M in net outflows.

• Paris Saint-Germain announces Bitcoin treasury.

• Tether holds over 100,000 Bitcoin and 50 tons of gold.

• Circle freezes $58M in USDC linked to Libra memecoin scandal.

• IBIT dominates 10-day US Bitcoin ETF inflow streak totaling $4.2B.

• B2B stablecoin payments surge to $36B annual pace, survey finds.

• SEC says PoS staking activities do not constitute securities transactions.

• Thailand moves to block Bybit, OKX, and others for unlicensed operations.

• Russian central bank lets firms offer crypto derivatives to qualified investors.

• SOL Strategies files initial prospectus to raise $1B to expand SOL investment.

NOTEWORTHY READS

• Lemniscap’s read on quantum x crypto.

• Jonah Burian’s read on how to capture value.

• Pantera Capital’s read on a new frontier for crypto exposure.

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.