Superstate launches "on-chain shares", the SOL reserve company brings the coin stock battlefield back on-chain.

Under the catalyst of projects like Robinhood, xStocks, and Republic, a large number of companies' on-chain "stocks" have appeared in the Solana ecosystem, and an unprecedented "coin-stock linkage" experiment is underway. Upexi has continued to increase its SOL holdings over the past few months, surpassing 730,000 coins, making it the Nasdaq-listed company with the most SOL holdings. Recently, it also announced that it will tokenize its SEC registered stocks on Solana through the Opening Bell platform under Superstate.

Another "SOL Microstrategy" SOL Strategies, which plans to launch "tokenization of stocks" on the same platform, is also attempting to build a three-layer circular structure. This involves using traditional equity (or debt) financing to purchase SOL assets, unlocking liquidity through on-chain tokenization, and ultimately leveraging DeFi protocols to amplify capital circulation. The success or failure of this model will directly impact the integration process between traditional finance and on-chain finance.

Are companies that buy SOL really making a profit?

The two companies that are about to go live on Opening Bell both have SOL as their core asset, but their financing models and holdings strategies differ. In terms of financing scale and execution methods, Upexi has chosen a more aggressive path. Upexi announced on April 21, 2025, that it raised 100 million dollars through a PIPE private placement, led by the well-known crypto market maker GSR. It issued 43,859,649 shares of common stock at a price of 2.28 dollars per share. After deducting operational and other expenses, approximately 530 million dollars will be used for debt repayment, with the remaining funds specifically allocated to establish a Solana treasury and increase SOL holdings. According to company executive Arif Kazi, the pricing per share for this financing was higher than the market price at that time, and no lock-up or token附加条款 was set. Upexi then quickly purchased SOL assets, and as of June 30, it held approximately 735,692 SOL, valued at around 110 million dollars at market price. The average purchase prices for the three main acquisitions were 135.22 dollars, 141.10 dollars, and 151.50 dollars, with an overall average cost of approximately 142 dollars per SOL. This portion of SOL assets still has about a 10% premium compared to the current price (157 dollars).

Recently, the company announced that it plans to obtain an annual yield of about 7%-9% by staking SOL, and will develop businesses such as mining, nodes, staking, and DeFi in the SOL ecosystem. If, as stated in the announcement, most of the SOL has already been staked, then under the condition of not reducing holdings and with little fluctuation in the average price of SOL, Upexi's annual revenue from SOL staking will reach 8.8 million dollars. This revenue is not directly shared with the company's shareholders but is added to the national treasury, which directly increases the net asset value per share (NAV per share) through asset appreciation, that is, the "SOL content" per share. Based on 38.2 million circulating shares, each share corresponds to approximately 0.0192 SOL (worth about 2.97 dollars). The accumulation of staking income may further drive up the per-share value of SOL, thereby supporting the rise in stock prices.

The SOL Strategies adopted a convertible bond financing method. On April 23, 2025, the company announced a $500 million convertible bond arrangement with ATW Partners, specifically for purchasing and staking SOL. The first tranche of $20 million was received around May 1, used for purchasing SOL and staking it on its validator nodes, with the remaining up to $480 million to be withdrawn in batches depending on market conditions. The convertible bonds are convertible into company stock at market price, with interest paid at an 85% staking yield on the actual SOL received.

As of June 30, SOL Strategies' Holdings of SOL has increased from an initial approximately 267,321 coins (market value of about 40 million USD) to 392,667 SOL, with an average purchase cost of about 153.53 USD per SOL, showing almost no significant loss or gain in terms of coin price.

The current average yield of staked SOL reported is approximately 7.53%. Although some of the returns are similar to Upxie, reinvesting the returns into the treasury or node staking increases the net asset value per share. However, in the agreement with ATW Partners, 85% of the staking rewards generated from SOL acquired and staked through facilities are paid to the creditors in the form of SOL. This model creates a relatively self-sustaining financial cycle, generating returns from the very first dollar of capital invested. In addition, regarding the conversion terms, the convertible bonds can also be converted into company stock at market price, specifically at the market price on the day before conversion. This arrangement is exempt from registration under Canadian and U.S. securities laws and complies with Ontario Securities Commission Rule 72-503, without the statutory holding period required by Canadian securities law.

The stock price of the counterfeit listed company has crashed, can on-chain "continue" the asset net value premium?

Whether through PIPE or convertible debt financing to acquire SOL, Upexi and SOL Strategies have verified the feasibility of the functional returns of assets like SOL in some form, but this is only the first two steps, and there have indeed been some systemic risks in the stock price performance.

For example, after Upexi reported PIPE financing on April 21, 2025, its stock price surged from about $2.3 to an intraday high of $16.8, an increase of as much as 630%. However, following the unlocking of PIPE shares on June 23 and the registration of resale by investors, the stock price plummeted by about 60% in a single day, and further declined to around $3.26 on the 25th, halving more than 77% in just two days, almost erasing the price increase prior to this strategy. After the financing was completed, Upexi's net asset value per share premium rapidly increased from about 4 times to over 7 times, but quickly fell back after the PIPE shares were unlocked, and is now close to the per-share NAV level.

The initial financing form and acquisition method of SOLStrategies were not as aggressive as Upexi, but they faced similar issues. After announcing convertible bond financing on April 23, the stock price surged over 18%, closing up 7% the next day. By early June, when the Q2 financial report and on-chain pilot were disclosed, the stock price increased from 1.8 CAD to 2.42 CAD, a rise of about 34%. However, by July 2025, the stock price had retraced about 60% from its peak, resulting in its NAV premium dropping from about 5 times during Q2 to around 4.5 times.

The next on-chain channel for listed companies - Opening Bell

In fact, most listed companies that are part of the "coin-stock concept" have encountered similar dilemmas. Upexi and SOLStrategies are taking the opportunity of the recent "US stocks on-chain" trend to be the first to initiate the transformation of on-chain stock strategies and market structures. After the launch of Opening Bell by Superstate, SOL Strategies, a Canadian listed company, announced plans to list on NASDAQ, but before ringing the bell on NASDAQ, they chose to "ring the bell" on Superstate first. On May 8, 2025, they announced that their company's stock would be launched on that platform, and once approved by regulatory authorities, SOL Strategies' stock will trade on Solana this summer. Following closely, Upexi announced on June 26, 2025, that it would tokenize its shares through the Opening Bell platform, making both parties the first participants in that platform.

Opening Bell currently chooses to establish itself on Solana (with plans for other chains like Ethereum later), interacting with USTB and USCC issued by Superstate, and the company's shares will be recorded and tokenized by Superstate's SEC-registered, blockchain-enabled share registration agency. Unlike other 'mirror tokens', this form will not be synthetic exposure or wrapped tokens, but the company's actual shares will truly be on-chain for the first time. Interestingly, similar to Nasdaq, Superstate indicates that they will ring the bell simultaneously at their headquarters in New York when the company goes public from Opening Bell.

Opening Bell provides a "virtual cross-chain bridge" from reality to Crypto for companies that are already listed, while for those that are not yet listed, Opening Bell is more like a "Pre Market" of NASDAQ or NYSE, offering the ability to open shares to crypto users in the crypto-native market, providing different funding exposure for future "official listings."

Opening Bell Can it really save the "coin stock concept stocks"?

Currently, whether it is Upexi, SOL Strategies, or other coin buying companies, the core support for their NAV per share almost entirely comes from the market value of the SOL holdings. Many in the community are concerned about whether they will use a nested approach to create a "coin-stock bubble," using PIPE or convertible bonds to finance the purchase of SOL, then tokenizing the company stock on-chain, and using the stock as collateral in DeFi for lending, thereby releasing new investable capital and achieving a "buy SOL - collateralize - reinvest" flywheel structure.

However, the stock issuance and trading on the Opening Bell platform are still under a strict regulatory framework. The platform requires investors to sign up through KYC certification and complete relevant education before they can hold "on-chain shares" (Token Shares) in a pre-approved whitelist wallet. At this stage, only existing shareholders, investors who have passed Superstate KYC certification, and compliant "KYC" partner wallets have whitelist privileges. In other words, on-chain stock trading is currently limited to approved accounts, and investors cannot freely use tokenized stocks to collateralize and lend in any DeFi protocol.

At the same time, Superstate and institutions like the Solana Policy Research Institute have submitted a pilot proposal to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) called "Project Open." This proposal envisions allowing certain U.S. companies to issue, register, and trade their stocks natively on public chains like SOLana within a restricted issuer scope. The trading process also needs to be completed within approved whitelisted wallets, and regulatory authorities are given the right to intervene and modify at any time. If the SEC ultimately approves, this means that stocks can be delivered globally around the clock and in real-time, just like cryptocurrencies; if not, then traditional trading models will continue.

Robert Leshner, CEO of Superstate, stated in an interview that he is betting on the new generation of crypto-first investors. "This is a huge wave of capital, and they don't care about brokerage accounts; they care about blockchain wallets. They want to trade in the way they are accustomed to. I truly believe this is a brand new capital market, ready to welcome businesses at any time." He added, "Hedge funds and venture capital firms around the world have become enamored with crypto-native channels and pointed out that Superstate has 150 institutional clients globally, including well-known firms like Arrington Capital, BitGo, CoinFund, Flowdesk, and ParaFi."

This path undoubtedly provides institutional investors with more access channels. However, whether it can support the premium of asset net value in the long term still depends on the sustainability of the underlying assets. Unlike Bitcoin, which has strong consensus, SOL, as a yield-oriented asset, relies more on staking, DeFi usage, and other scenarios to maintain its value anchor. If on-chain stocks cannot be quickly absorbed and integrated into the DeFi ecosystem, such as failing to effectively enter the lending market or becoming foundational assets for market making, these companies will be more easily regarded by the market as "knockoff MicroStrategy," and their valuation system will quickly revert to the old path of "SOL holdings discount + traditional business discount," rather than entering a new paradigm of "asset tool-type enterprises."

Upexi has taken the lead by listing its stocks on Webull Corporate Connect and launching Nasdaq derivative trading, while laying out an on-chain tokenization path with Opening Bell. Its dual market trading structure means that its stock volatility is influenced not only by the company's fundamentals and SOL price but also by on-chain liquidation, leveraged squeezes, and other factors. This type of high-leverage structure may attract the attention of crypto arbitrageurs and professional DeFi users in the short term, bringing about a phased influx of capital and valuation surges. However, it also means that stock prices will become 'tokenized', and their volatility may far exceed what traditional market investors can bear.

Once there is excessive leverage on-chain and significant price fluctuations of assets, the reverse liquidation mechanism may quickly turn "stock price surge" into "liquidation crash." For companies attempting to achieve NAV premium continuation through "on-chain longevity," this is a double-edged sword. If a true on-chain financial closed loop has not been formed, the pricing of such companies is more likely to revert to the model of "crypto holdings + revenue discounting," and the originally anticipated valuation space may be compressed.