SOL Strategies raises $500M via convertible notes with ATW Partners to develop institutional Solana infrastructure, coinciding with SOL’s 35% weekly price surge and Franklin Templeton’s landmark ETF filing.
Toronto-based SOL Strategies announced a $500 million convertible note offering on 15 July 2024, partnered with NY’s ATW Partners, to acquire SOL tokens and build institutional staking products – capitalizing on Solana’s ecosystem growth and recent corporate adoption milestones.
Institutional Momentum Builds for Solana
SOL Strategies’ financing round, structured through convertible debt instruments, represents the largest dedicated institutional investment vehicle for Solana ecosystem development to date. The Toronto firm confirmed proceeds will fund regulated staking solutions targeting pension funds and asset managers, with ATW Partners underwriting the offering.
Price Surge Follows ETF Regulatory Play
Solana’s native token SOL reached $170 on 15 July, a 35% weekly gain that coincides with Franklin Templeton’s 12 July Solana ETF filing with the SEC. This makes the $1.6 trillion asset manager the first traditional firm to pursue SOL-based exchange-traded products, following its successful Bitcoin ETF launch in January 2024.
Visa Expands Blockchain Footprint
The funding announcement follows Visa’s 11 July confirmation of expanded USDC stablecoin settlement pilots on Solana, having processed $10 billion in transactions since December 2023. SOL Strategies CEO Mark Finley noted: “Our infrastructure will directly support payment providers leveraging Solana’s 2,466 TPS capability – this isn’t speculative, it’s operational scaling.”
DeFi Metrics Signal Ecosystem Health
Santiment data shows Solana’s DeFi total value locked (TVL) surged 22% this week to $4.5 billion, with Kamino Finance and marginfi accounting for 61% of lending activity. The network’s daily active addresses surpassed 1.2 million on 14 July, a 9-month high according to Messari.
Technical Upgrades Progress
Developers launched phase two testing of Firedancer on 10 July, Solana’s next-generation validator client from Jump Crypto. Early benchmarks show 1.1 million transactions per second (TPS) capability on testnet, addressing past network congestion concerns that plagued the blockchain in 2022.
Historical Context: Following Ethereum’s Institutional Path
Solana’s corporate adoption trajectory mirrors Ethereum’s 2020-2022 progression, when Enterprise Ethereum Alliance members like JPMorgan and Microsoft drove 580% ETH price growth. However, Solana’s technical focus on high-throughput payments positions it uniquely in institutional crypto infrastructure plays.
ETF Precedents and Market Impact
Franklin Templeton’s ETF filing follows BlackRock’s successful Bitcoin ETF strategy that attracted $16.3 billion inflows in six months. SEC approval of spot SOL ETFs could unlock $4-7 billion in first-year institutional demand according to Galaxy Digital’s 13 July research note, though regulatory hurdles remain significant given Solana’s ongoing SEC classification debates.
