In brief
- Publicly traded consumer products firm Upexi announced a $100 million funding round on Monday.
- The funds will primarily be used to establish and fuel a Solana treasury reserve.
- Shares in Upexi skyrocketed Monday, finishing the day up 335%.
Publicly traded company Upexi plans to create a Solana corporate treasury, using more than $90 million worth of newly raised funds. The Monday announcement sent Upexi shares skyrocketing, more than quadrupling in price as a result.
The Nasdaq-listed consumer products firm, which has been diversifying into the crypto space, raised $100 million in its latest funding round, the company said Monday in a press release. Roughly 95% of those funds are earmarked for establishing, filling and operating a new Solana-based treasury reserve.
GSR led the funding round, with participation from several crypto firms, including Delta Blockchain Fund, Delphi Ventures, and Hivemind, as well as several angel investors. The raise was completed through the sale of 44 million common-stock shares at $2.28 per share.
Upexi shares skyrocketed on Monday following the announcement, finishing the day at $9.89—up 335% in the past 24 hours. Shares rose as high as $22 earlier Monday, marking the highest price for the stock in more than a year.
Solana is trading at $136 as of writing time, down 0.4% on the day, according to data provider CoinGecko.
Upexi’s push to create a Solana treasury comes several days after real estate financing platform Janover purchased an additional $10.5 million worth of Solana for its own recently created SOL stash.
It also comes amid the broader trend of public companies following the playbook of Strategy, which pioneered holding crypto as a business strategy. The Michael Saylor-owned company has amassed more than $47 billion worth of Bitcoin in the past five years.
On Monday, Strategy announced that it had purchased 6,500 Bitcoin the previous week, padding its corporate coffers by $556 million. Separately, Japan-based Metaplanet, which has pivoted from its hotel business to become a BTC treasury, said it had added 330 BTC worth more than $28 million to its holdings.
Although Upexi plans to use much of its newly raised funds to buy Solana, it has earmarked roughly $5.3 million for its working capital and debt reduction.
Its offering is expected to close on April 24, pending the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, according to a Upexi statement.
Edited by James Rubin
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