Nasdaq-listed Helius Medical Technologies is launching a $500 million corporate treasury reserve built around Solana, making it one of the largest Solana-focused treasury initiatives to date.
The company announced Monday that it priced an oversubscribed private investment in public equity (PIPE) offering of common stock at $6.88 per share, along with stapled warrants exercisable at $10.12 for three years. The deal includes $500 million in equity and up to $750 million in warrants, assuming full exercise.
Helius said it will use the net proceeds of the offering to establish a crypto treasury strategy with the Solana (SOL) token as its main reserve asset. The company said it will “significantly scale holdings over the next 12-24 months via best-in-class capital markets program incorporating ATM sales and other proven strategies.”
Helius will also explore staking and lending opportunities within the Solana ecosystem to generate additional revenue from the SOL treasury, while maintaining a “conservative” risk profile, it said.
Led by crypto-focused US asset manager Pantera Capital and Asian fund manager Summer Capital, the offering is expected to close on Thursday. Other participants include Big Brain Holdings, Avenir, FalconX, Arrington Capital, Animoca Brands and HashKey Capital.
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Solana a “category-defining” blockchain
“We believe that Solana is a category-defining blockchain and the foundation on which a new financial system will be built,” said Dan Morehead, founder and managing partner of Pantera Capital.
“A productive treasury company, backing the industry’s most affordable, fastest, and most accessible network, stands to substantially increase institutional and retail access to the Solana ecosystem and help fuel its adoption around the world.”
After the offering’s closing, the company’s management team will be led by incoming director and executive chairman Joseph Chee, currently the founder and chairman of Summer Capital and former head of Investment Banking across Asia at UBS.
The new crypto treasury vehicle will focus on “maximizing SOL per share by leveraging the most commercially viable blockchain for decentralized finance and consumer applications,” said Chee, predicting that capital markets transactions will be “moving onto blockchain rails,” including payments and tokenization.
Helius called SOL “financially productive by design” due to offering about a 7% native staking yield, compared to Bitcoin (BTC), which it called a “non-yield-bearing” asset.
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Solana adoption gains institutional momentum
Helius’ announcement comes amid growing institutional interest in Solana treasury strategies, after digital asset investment firm Galaxy Digital bought $306 million worth of Solana on Sunday, partnering with investment firm Multicoin Capital and trading firm Jump Crypto to create a crypto treasury firm.
More corporate crypto treasury firms may increase demand and help the Solana token’s price appreciation, which is up nearly 25% year-to-date, TradingView data shows.
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