Billionaire investor Ken Griffin has purchased $12.6 million of Solana treasury stock for his Citadel investment firm.
SOLUSD – Daily Chart
The news has not impacted SOLUSD prices, and the $200 level is the barrier to gains. However, a move above that level could see further interest if companies are looking for BTC alternatives.
Griffin is known for being open-minded to new asset classes and quantitative investing, with a personal net worth of $50.1 billion, according to Forbes. His firm has joined a growing band of companies investing in crypto treasury holdings.
According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Citadel bought 800,000 shares of the DeFi Development (NYSE: DFDV) stock at an average price of $15.76 per share for a total investment of $12.6 million. It’s a bold bet after the company’s stock has already soared by 2,000 per cent in the last year. DeFi Development has bought up Solana crypto tokens and currently holds around 2.2 million SOL tokens.
While SOL prices have risen modestly over the past year compared to Bitcoin, analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald believe the coin is well-positioned as an ‘infrastructure layer of the future,’ given its high transaction volume and low costs.
“We are the first public equity vehicle to integrate deeply with the onchain economy, compound validator yield, and bring institutional capital directly into Solana,” CEO Joseph Onorati said.
The move shows that institutional investors are seeking ideas beyond the familiar bitcoin destination.
Meanwhile, payments giant Visa may be creating space for stablecoins from the largest U.S. banks.
“We are adding support for four stablecoins running on four unique blockchains, representing two currencies that we can accept and convert to over 25 traditional fiat currencies,” the company’s CEO said. That follows the regulation in the country’s GENIUS Act, which provides broad oversight of crypto and stablecoins by traditional banks.
