Wall Street's New Darling: Why Corporate Treasuries Are Starting to Gamble Big on Solana After Bitcoin and Ethereum?

Author: Luke, Mars Finance

A seemingly ordinary announcement has cast a significant stone in the landscape where cryptocurrency intersects with traditional finance. On June 19, Canadian publicly traded company SOL Strategies Inc. (CSE: HODL) submitted a Form 40-F registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), planning to list on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the code “STKE”. This is not just a capital operation of a company, but a reflection of an emerging trend.

In recent years, the strategy of publicly traded companies incorporating cryptocurrency into their balance sheets has undergone a clear evolution. From initially revering Bitcoin (BTC) as “digital gold” to later embracing Ethereum (ETH) as a “productive asset,” each iteration reflects the changing depth of the market’s understanding of digital assets. Today, we are witnessing the rise of the third wave, with Solana as its protagonist.

With SOL Strategies Inc.'s plan to go public on Nasdaq as a landmark event, more and more corporate treasuries are beginning to turn their attention to Solana. This raises a core question: why are these companies choosing to gamble on Solana in a context where Bitcoin and Ethereum have already occupied mainstream visibility? Is this merely a speculative game waiting for asset appreciation, or is there a deeper strategic consideration behind it? The answer is far more complex than simple price expectations, revealing a profound bet on the future of financial infrastructure.

The Evolution of Enterprise Treasury: From “Digital Gold” to “Financial Operating System”

To understand why companies choose Solana, we first need to review the three stages of the evolution of corporate crypto asset strategies. This journey begins with passive value preservation, moves towards active yield generation, and ultimately progresses to strategic integration.

The first wave: Bitcoin as the beginning of the “digital gold” story, led by companies like MicroStrategy. They pioneered the use of Bitcoin as a primary reserve asset, with the core logic of viewing Bitcoin as a store of value and “digital gold” as a hedge against macroeconomic uncertainty. This strategy is relatively passive and essentially “hoard-and-hold” (HODL), betting on Bitcoin’s long-term scarcity and value consensus. Many companies, including Tesla and Block Inc., have followed suit, using Bitcoin as a strategic reserve to protect against the erosion of fiat inflation.

The Second Wave: Ethereum as a “Productive Asset” As Ethereum shifts to a Proof-of-Stake mechanism, the story enters its second chapter. Companies are beginning to realize that ETH can not only serve as a store of value but also as a “productive asset” that can generate returns. By staking ETH, companies can achieve a stable income stream and realize endogenous growth of their assets. Recently, the Nasdaq-listed sports betting platform SharpLink Gaming announced the acquisition of 176,271 ETH valued at $463 million and plans to stake over 95% of its holdings, aiming to become the “Ethereum version of MicroStrategy.” This strategic shift marks the evolution of corporate treasuries from “passive holding” to the stage of “active earning.”

The Third Wave: Solana as “Strategic Infrastructure” Today, companies represented by SOL Strategies, DeFi Development Corp, and Upexi are sparking the third wave. Their choice of Solana has gone beyond mere expectations of asset appreciation and passive income. It is a deeper strategic layout, viewing Solana as a “high-performance financial operating system” and attempting to deeply engage in and build the future on-chain economy by holding SOL.

Why Solana? Three Core Driving Forces

The reason why corporate treasuries are betting on Solana is not a whim, but rather a comprehensive consideration based on three core driving forces. These three driving forces collectively answer the question of “Why Solana?” and the answer goes far beyond just “waiting for appreciation.”

1. Not just earning interest, but also “means of production”

Similar to Ethereum, Solana can also generate considerable returns through staking. However, for companies like SOL Strategies, the significance of SOL goes far beyond that. They do not simply delegate SOL to third parties for staking; instead, they use SOL as the “means of production” for their core business.

The business model of SOL Strategies is to operate its own validator nodes. The massive amount of SOL it holds serves as the capital base for operating these nodes, providing the company with dual or even multiple sources of income: first, the staking rewards from its own SOL assets; second, by attracting third-party institutions (such as the Australian-listed company DigitalX) to delegate their SOL to its validators, thus earning commissions and block rewards. This model transforms the company from a mere asset holder into a provider and operator of ecological infrastructure. As its CEO Leah Wald emphasized, SOL Strategies is a “technology company,” not a fund. In this model, SOL is no longer just a number on the balance sheet, but the core fuel driving the company’s business flywheel.

2. Firm belief in outstanding technological performance

All strategic layouts stem from confidence in the underlying technological strength. Wall Street investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald bluntly stated in a widely watched report that they believe “Solana’s technology is clearly superior to Ethereum on every metric.” This judgment is not unfounded.

The Solana network is renowned for its unparalleled performance, capable of processing over 2000 transactions per second (TPS) continuously, with an average transaction fee of less than $0.001. This high throughput and low-cost characteristic have made it possible for many applications that are difficult to realize on other blockchains due to high costs (such as high-frequency trading, micropayments, and consumer applications) to thrive on Solana. Its highly anticipated new validator client, Firedancer, aims to elevate network throughput to the million TPS level, and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has stated that this is more of a hardware optimization issue rather than requiring fundamental changes to the protocol.

For enterprises, choosing Solana is choosing a platform that is considered to have superior technology and is better suited to support future large-scale applications. This is a bet on the technological path, believing that its excellent performance will ultimately translate into a more prosperous ecosystem and higher network value.

3. Deeply Bind the Grand Vision of ‘The Next Wall Street’

This may well be the most fundamental and exciting reason for the corporate gamble on Solana. Holding SOL means being deeply bound to a grand vision—specifically, the “decentralized Nasdaq” originally envisioned by Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko. At the core of this vision is that all financial assets in the future, whether stocks, bonds, or real estate, will be issued, traded, and settled on the blockchain in tokenized form (RWA).

Companies that hold Solana are not just investing in a token, but also investing in the “bottom track” of the future financial market. By holding core network assets, they gain a ticket to participate in and shape this future ecosystem. As Todd Ruoff, CEO of Autonomys Labs, puts it, the company holds SOL “not just for a store of value, but to actively participate in a growing ecosystem.” SOL Strategies has even begun working with Superstate to explore tokenizing its company’s stake on the solana chain, trying to be a part of this future in person.

This strategy is far more forward-looking than simply waiting for asset appreciation. It is a deep strategic alliance that closely ties the company’s future to the success or failure of the Solana ecosystem. It is a shift from being a bystander to becoming a participant, and even a builder.

Risks and Horizons: A Clear Examination

Despite the broad prospects, this path is not without risks. First, the price volatility of the SOL token itself is a significant challenge that all participants must face. Secondly, the ongoing uncertainty in the global cryptocurrency regulatory environment, especially regarding asset classification (such as whether it is considered a security), hangs over all projects like the sword of Damocles.

Moreover, there exists a more subtle structural financial risk. The stock prices of these “vault companies” often trade at a significant premium, well above the net asset value (NAV) of the crypto assets they hold. Some analysts compare this phenomenon to the previous GBTC premium, arguing that it essentially injects leverage into the system. Once market sentiment reverses and the premium turns into a discount, it could trigger a chain reaction, forcing these companies to liquidate assets to repay debts, thereby putting downward pressure on the market. Finally, even the founder of Solana remains clear-headed, with Yakovenko reminding that transforming high user engagement into high retention rates and pushing the ecosystem beyond the frenzy of meme coins towards maturity is a real challenge that needs to be addressed.

Conclusion: A strategic gamble that transcends price

In summary, the reason why corporate treasuries have begun to gamble heavily on Solana is multifaceted and highly strategic.

• From a strategic perspective, this is an evolution from passive holding (Bitcoin as “digital gold”) and active yield generation (Ethereum as “productive asset”) to deep strategic integration (Solana as “financial operating system”).
• From a business perspective, SOL can not only bring staking rewards but also become a production resource that drives the company’s core business (such as validator nodes), creating diversified revenue streams.
• From a technical perspective, this is a firm belief that Solana’s high-performance, low-cost architecture can win future competition.
• From a visionary perspective, this is an ultimate bet on the grand narratives of “tokenization of everything” and “decentralized Nasdaq,” aiming to seize the strategic high ground in the future on-chain financial world.

Therefore, interpreting the actions of these companies simply as “waiting for appreciation” clearly underestimates the ambition behind them. They are not buying a lottery ticket; they are purchasing a cornerstone of a future new continent and trying to personally participate in the construction of this new continent. This is exactly the true charm of Solana as the new darling of Wall Street, attracting more and more corporate treasuries to get involved.