DeFi Development Corp. Launches $19.8M Preferred Stock Offering to Fund SOL Purchases

Solana treasury firm DeFi Development Corp. has launched a preferred stock offering that could raise $19.8 million, with most of the proceeds expected to fund SOL purchases.

DeFi Development Corp. is a publicly traded company listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker DFDV. It has adopted a treasury strategy centered on accumulating and staking SOL.

According to CEO Joseph Onorati, the company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, including for working capital and the acquisition of SOL.

“Intended use of proceeds are outlined in the prospectus, but we expect to buy SOL with most of the proceeds,” he told Decrypt.

The Nasdaq-listed company is offering 2.2 million shares of Variable Rate Series C Perpetual Preferred Stock at $9 each, according to a preliminary prospectus. It has applied to list the shares under the ticker CHAD.

The prospectus lists working capital, SOL and other digital asset investments, strategic transactions and growth initiatives as possible uses of the proceeds. It does not specify how much will go toward each purpose.

The company said last week that it had purchased approximately 19,000 SOL at an average price of $98.14. The acquisition brought its holdings to about 2,333,432 SOL, worth about $236 million.

Proceeds from the sale of DFDV’s ZeroStack position partially funded the purchase, according to a company press release. DFDV plans to retain the tokens as a long-term treasury asset and deploy them through its staking and on-chain infrastructure.

Along with holding SOL, the company operates its own Solana validators. That allows it to earn staking rewards and fees from delegated tokens. It also participates in decentralized finance projects built on Solana.

Onorati said DFDV is designed to give shareholders leveraged exposure to SOL. He pointed to the company’s trading volume, SOL holdings and staking income as central parts of that strategy.

“Our equity has become one of the most liquid ways to express that view within the SOL DAT category, while our treasury continues to generate differentiated organic yield,” he said in a statement at the time. “When SOL performs well, we believe DFDV has the potential to amplify that performance.”

DFDV said its returns were more than double SOL’s month-to-date and 1.8 times SOL’s quarter-to-date, which the company attributed to its leveraged exposure, trading liquidity, and treasury yield.

On several days that week, DFDV recorded the category’s highest absolute dollar trading volume, the company said. It also led in trading volume as a percentage of market capitalization.

If completed, the preferred-stock offering would give DFDV more money to continue buying SOL.