Key Takeaways:
DeFi Development Corp. sold $11 million of preferred stock tied to Solana, the first digital credit instrument backed by the token, on the Nasdaq Capital Market.
"CHAD represents a major milestone for DFDV and for the evolution of Digital Credit," Joseph Onorati, chief executive officer and chairman at DeFi Development Corp., said. "For the first time, investors can access Digital Credit backed by Solana, while DFDV gains a new source of permanent capital that can be deployed directly into additional productive SOL."
The Boca Raton, Florida-based company issued its Variable Rate Series C Perpetual Preferred Stock at $8.00 per share with a $10.00 stated amount and an initial annual dividend rate of 13 percent, equal to an initial effective yield of about 16.25 percent. CHAD pays cumulative dividends daily and trades under the ticker "CHAD." R.F. Lafferty & Co. acted as sole book-running manager for the offering.
Because CHAD is non-convertible preferred equity, the issuance does not add to DFDV's common share count. The company expects the transaction to be accretive to SOL per share, its north-star operating metric, once substantially all net proceeds are deployed into additional SOL.
The offering extends the emerging Digital Credit category, previously built around bitcoin, to Solana for the first time. Unlike bitcoin, SOL is a productive asset that generates native staking yield, which DFDV seeks to enhance through its validator operations and on-chain treasury activities. "Bitcoin proved there is enormous demand for Digital Credit. We think Solana makes the product fundamentally better," Onorati said.
The deal drew participation from Thomas Lee, co-founder and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors and chairman of the board of BitMine, alongside other investors. Lee's involvement adds a prominent institutional name to a product that management wants to scale into a recurring funding source for SOL accumulation.
Getting CHAD established near its $10.00 stated amount is one of the company's highest near-term capital markets priorities, according to Dan Kang, chief strategy officer and head of investor relations. The variable-rate structure gives DFDV flexibility to adjust the dividend rate, subject to specified limits, to support the security's market price within its targeted trading range.
"If we execute, we believe CHAD can become a deep, scalable and recurring source of capital for DFDV and become a critical part of how the Company grows SPS over time," Kang said.
DFDV, which describes itself as the first U.S. public company with a treasury strategy built to accumulate and compound SOL, expects to provide an update on its SOL holdings and SPS after deploying the offering proceeds. The company also runs an AI-powered commercial real estate platform, its legacy business.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
