{"id":13683,"date":"2025-10-17T19:44:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T19:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/interview-why-upexi-chose-solana-over-ethereum-for-its-treasury\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T19:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T19:44:11","slug":"interview-why-upexi-chose-solana-over-ethereum-for-its-treasury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/interview-why-upexi-chose-solana-over-ethereum-for-its-treasury\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview | Why Upexi chose Solana over Ethereum for its treasury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">Brian Rudick, Chief Strategy Officer at Upexi, explained why treasury firms are still HODLing after the latest crypto market crash. <\/p>\n<div id=\"cn-block-summary-block_a62077f116db6a85fe6c4f7023c0f1e7\" class=\"cn-block-summary\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__nav tabs\">\n        <span class=\"tabs__item is-selected\">Summary<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Upexi hasn\u2019t sold a single token post-crash \u2014 their 2M+ SOL position remains unchanged<\/li>\n<li>Upexi says volatility enhances the value of the convertible bonds they issue, enabling better capital raises <\/li>\n<li>Solana was chosen over Ethereum due to its throughput, composability, and monolithic architecture<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-summary --><\/p>\n<p>When the crypto market shed over $1 trillion in value in a matter of hours, many investors panicked. Still, crypto treasury companies, which hold large amounts of spot tokens on their balance sheets, did not flinch.  <\/p>\n<p>One of them is the Solana treasury firm Upexi. In this exclusive interview, Brian Rudick, Chief Strategy Officer at Upexi, explains why recent volatility did not affect their business. He also explained how the treasury firm decides when to buy more SOL, the latest trends among treasury firms, and its general case for the token. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Crypto.news: The recent crypto crash has wiped out a trillion in crypto market cap in hours, and it hit Solana pretty hard. While SOL recovered, how did this affect treasury companies like Upexi?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Brian Rudick: Honestly, for us, the impact was basically zero, and I think that\u2019s true for most treasury companies. We follow a buy-and-HOLD strategy. We\u2019re not doing aggressive on-chain trading or using leverage to chase yields. We hold spot Solana and we stake it. So when there\u2019s a crash, what really happens is that your net asset value (NAV) drops temporarily, and then, in this case, it mostly recovered.<\/p>\n<p>Unless you\u2019re highly levered, it doesn\u2019t affect your strategy or risk profile much. If anything, it can present a really attractive entry point. If you\u2019ve got cash ready, you can buy the dip. But otherwise, nothing changes for us.<\/p>\n<p>The real risk is excessive leverage: if you\u2019re borrowing heavily and the token you\u2019re holding crashes and stays low, that\u2019s where problems start. We\u2019re very conservative. We only have about $40 million in outstanding debt, against roughly $400 million in Solana. That\u2019s single-digit leverage. And that line of credit can be repaid at any time.<\/p>\n<p>So for treasury companies, the only way you become a forced seller is if you\u2019re highly levered, and token prices crash and stay down for an extended period. Most of these companies ladder their debt maturities across multiple years. So the risk only crystallizes if we\u2019re stuck in a deep bear market for years, not weeks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CN: Does this kind of volatility affect demand from institutional or retail investors? It really spotlighted how volatile crypto still is.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BR: I don\u2019t think it changes investor demand at all. Most of the investors coming into a treasury company like ours aren\u2019t trying to trade in and out over a few weeks. <\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re not chasing short-term moves. They\u2019re here because they understand the long-term value accrual \u2014 and that comes from mechanisms like capital issuance, staking yield, and compounding SOL per share. They accept that crypto is volatile. That\u2019s part of the game. But over time, if the value-per-share increases, that\u2019s what they care about.<\/p>\n<p>Also, treasury companies can monetize volatility in ways others can\u2019t. For example, when we, or a company like <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/strategy.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">MicroStrategy<\/a>, issue convertible notes, there\u2019s an embedded option in those instruments. And the more volatile the underlying asset is, in this case, our stock, the more valuable that option becomes to the buyer.<\/p>\n<p>So volatility actually helps us raise capital more efficiently in some cases. Investors will pay more for that embedded volatility premium. So rather than being a risk, it can actually be an asset if you know how to structure around it.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<p><strong>CN:<\/strong> <strong>What are the advantages of investing in a treasury firm like Upexi, instead of just buying the underlying asset like SOL? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BR: First, a treasury strategy can create real shareholder value. One way is through intelligent capital issuance \u2014 if we\u2019re trading above book value, then raising equity at that level lets us increase our SOL per share. That, in turn, should support our stock price if the market holds the multiple.<\/p>\n<p>Second, our treasury is a productive asset. We stake our Solana, earning about an 8% annual yield. And in some cases, we\u2019re able to buy locked SOL at a mid-teens discount. When you convert that discount into a yield-equivalent, it effectively doubles our staking returns. <\/p>\n<p>These are real value accrual mechanisms, compounding over time, and they\u2019re central to our thesis. <\/p>\n<p><strong>CN:<\/strong> <strong>How do you decide when to buy Solana? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BR: When we raise additional cash, we buy more Solana. We don\u2019t time the market. Our strategy is tied to capital formation. We can raise capital in a few ways: Convertible notes, Equity private placements, or ATM programs \u2014 which are \u201cat-the-market\u201d equity issuance programs.<\/p>\n<p>Back in April, we did a $100 million equity private placement, and in July, we completed a $200 million concurrent offering \u2014 part equity, part convertible debt. Once we had that liquidity, we deployed it into Solana.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CN:<\/strong> <strong>And how do you decide when to seek investment? Does that depend on whether you can increase SOL per share?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BR: Exactly. A lot of it depends on market conditions. Is there strong investor appetite for treasury company equity? Are we trading at a multiple that makes equity issuance accretive?<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a push-pull there. For example, if we\u2019re trading at 5x NAV, then selling $100 million in equity is highly accretive: we\u2019d be creating value immediately. But it\u2019s also harder to raise that much at such a high valuation.<\/p>\n<p>So you\u2019re balancing how accretive the raise is versus how achievable it is. We\u2019ve filed for an equity line with the SEC, which is essentially a quasi-ATM. Once it\u2019s deemed effective, we\u2019ll be able to sell a small percentage of our daily trading volume into the market to raise funds gradually.<\/p>\n<p>But you have to be careful. You don\u2019t want to hit your own stock price. So we typically look at issuing 1\u20134% of daily volume \u2014 just enough to raise capital without disrupting the market, and still accretive to SOL\/share.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CN:<\/strong> <strong>Why Solana? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BR: Solana stood out to us as the leading high-performance smart contract blockchain. There are three reasons why: <\/p>\n<p>In terms of its tech, Solana processes transactions in parallel, like modern processors do. It\u2019s the first second-generation smart contract chain, launched in 2020, so it benefits from newer architecture and design principles, but also has meaningful network effects.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also its ecosystem, which is incredibly versatile. From DeFi, DePIN, social, gaming, tokenization, stablecoins, meme coins, AI agents, etc. You can build anything on Solana. <\/p>\n<p>Its traction is also strong. If you look at metrics on platforms like <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/Artemis.xyz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Artemis.xyz<\/a>, Solana is already leading in key areas: daily active users, DEX volumes, and dApp revenues.<\/p>\n<p>Ethereum is the biggest chain and the most well-known, no question. But Solana is making huge inroads, and we\u2019re trying to position ourselves where the market is going.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CN:<\/strong> <strong>How do you view Solana\u2019s competitive landscape? How does Solana compare to other similar chains? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BR: Ethereum is definitely the biggest and most decentralized chain, and it has a strong brand. But it\u2019s also constrained by its early design choices.<\/p>\n<p>Ethereum prioritized decentralization and security above all else, which meant performance suffered. That\u2019s why so much of the execution has been pushed out to layer 2s \u2014 which are basically separate blockchains. They capture a lot of value that otherwise might have accrued to Ethereum itself.<\/p>\n<p>Solana took a different approach. It focused on performance and security upfront \u2014 and has been able to grow into decentralization over time, thanks to things like Moore\u2019s Law and improvements in hardware and bandwidth. We think it\u2019s the first chain that\u2019s secure, decentralized, and high-performance all at once.<\/p>\n<p>From our point of view, Solana is purpose-built for one goal: to become the infrastructure for internet-scale capital markets \u2014 24\/7, global, permissionless access. That vision is really compelling, and we think it\u2019s where the future of finance is headed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CN:<\/strong> <strong>How does Solana compare to Ethereum\u2019s L2s from the perspective of the users? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BR: The user experience on Solana is much simpler and more unified. That\u2019s because Solana is monolithic \u2014 it does everything (data availability, execution, consensus, and settlement) on one layer. You don\u2019t need to jump between rollups or worry about bridging.<\/p>\n<p>With Ethereum, the value is fragmented across L2s, and most of them still have centralized sequencers, which raises questions about decentralization and regulatory risk. You\u2019re trusting the sequencer operator, and that\u2019s not a true permissionless system. Solana avoids a lot of that complexity.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<p><strong>CN:<\/strong> <strong>What trends are you thinking about lately that the rest of the market might be missing?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BR: I\u2019ll be honest. Upexi was one of the first to do a large-scale equity private placement to build an altcoin treasury, specifically in Solana. And because we were early \u2014 and successful \u2014 a lot of copycats followed.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the space is getting saturated. There are tons of companies trying to do the same thing. As a result, valuations and NAV multiples have come down. That\u2019s the shift. Everyone\u2019s now trying to figure out: what\u2019s the \u201cDigital Asset Treasury 2.0\u201d model? What comes next?<\/p>\n<p>One idea floating around is whether you can buy a profitable operating business and use its cash flow to accumulate digital assets \u2014 essentially funding your treasury from real earnings. It\u2019s an interesting idea, but I\u2019m not convinced. MicroStrategy\u2019s success arguably comes from the fact that it doesn\u2019t have a distracting business model. <\/p>\n<p>Most people couldn\u2019t even tell you what MicroStrategy actually does beyond holding Bitcoin, and that simplicity has worked in its favor. So I\u2019m not sure bringing in operating complexity adds value to this model.<\/p>\n<p>Another idea is to go further on-chain and try to juice yields \u2014 using more aggressive staking strategies, perhaps leveraging DeFi or other liquidity protocols. That\u2019s not something we\u2019re doing. We think it introduces a whole range of risks \u2014 legal, regulatory, smart contract risk, liquidation \u2014 and even then, those yields probably won\u2019t hold as more capital chases them. <\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re already earning mid-teens equivalent returns through more conservative strategies, like buying locked Solana at a discount. We don\u2019t feel the need to take additional risk just to chase an extra few points of yield.<\/p>\n<p>And then there are mergers and acquisitions, which are becoming a hot topic. I\u2019m a bit mixed on it. If you\u2019re a company trading below NAV, why would you sell yourself to another firm for less than your token value when you can just liquidate directly at NAV? On the other side, if you\u2019re the buyer, why would you pay a premium for another company\u2019s assets when you could buy those same tokens in the open market? <\/p>\n<p>Plus, M&amp;A comes with transaction risk, bankers, lawyers, months of process, and there\u2019s always the question of how the market will react. We\u2019ve already seen an example where the market didn\u2019t like it. Strive announced the acquisition of Semler. The deal was accretive on a per-Bitcoin basis, but Strive\u2019s stock dropped about 40% right after. That\u2019s the kind of risk you\u2019re taking.<\/p>\n<p>That said, there are reasons M&amp;A might still happen. If a buyer can\u2019t raise cash on their own but can offer stock, and if a seller is willing to accept that equity, it can still make sense, especially if the combined company gets better visibility or higher trading volume. That helps with future equity issuance.<\/p>\n<p>So, we\u2019ll see. I think we\u2019ll learn a lot from the next few M&amp;A deals. If they\u2019re well received, you might see a wave of consolidation. If not, it\u2019ll likely stay muted. For us, the focus remains the same: be disciplined, raise capital accretively, stake responsibly, and compound SOL per share over time. That still works, and it works without unnecessary risk. <\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brian Rudick, Chief Strategy Officer at Upexi, explained why treasury firms are still HODLing after the latest crypto market crash. Summary Upexi hasn\u2019t sold a single token post-crash \u2014 their&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13685,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13683\/revisions\/13685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}