Solana Treasury Stock Upexi Plunges 60%, Did Early Coin-Stashing Institutions Start Taking Profits?

Original Title: "Upexi Stock Price Plunges 60% in a Single Day, Listing a Coin has Become a New Trend of 'Rug Pull'"
Original Source: Bright, Foresight News

On the evening of June 24, the stock price of the Solana Treasury company Upexi (stock code: UPXI) listed on the US stock market plummeted over 60% during the trading day, closing at $3.97. It is reported that the reason for Upexi's flash crash this time was that earlier investors registered 43.85 million shares of resale stock, which already equaled the company's initial float in April.

Ironically, on June 17, Wall Street brokerage firm Cantor rated Solana Treasury's DeFi Development, Upexi, and Sol Strategies and all gave them a Buy rating. The firm set a target price of $16 for Upexi. Analyst Thomas Shinske wrote, "We believe that the future of financial betting for SOL financial companies will be on-chain, and the preferred chain will be Solana." Cantor pointed out that Solana's biggest competitor is the Ethereum blockchain, but its technology is much better than its larger peers on various metrics, making it more meaningful to use Solana as a financial asset than Ether.

Early Coin Hoarders Have Started to Retreat

Upexi and its predecessor Grove, Inc. is a company focused on the development, manufacturing, and distribution of consumer goods, owning multiple innovative brands such as the medicinal mushroom product brand Cure Mushrooms, the pet care brand LuckyTail, and the energy gummy-focused Praxanthine series, and selling products through e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Shopify, and proprietary channels. As of April 18, 2025, its market value was only $3 million and it was in a continuous net loss state, on the brink of delisting.

On April 21, Upexi announced a $100 million financing led by the well-known crypto market maker GSR, with approximately 95% earmarked for establishing and operating the Solana Treasury Reserve. This news directly boosted Upexi's stock price with an intraday surge of over 600%.

Upexi's strategy is to "go all-in on Sol," and among all the Sol Treasury companies, Upexi is actually the most like a Solana version of MicroStrategy. Upexi has signed securities purchase agreements with some investors to issue and sell 43.8596 million shares of common stock or warrants at a price of $2.28 per share, expecting to raise up to $100 million. It plans to use approximately $5.3 million for operating funds and debt repayment, with the remaining funds allocated to building the company's Solana Treasury system and increasing Solana assets.

Meanwhile, "here today, gone tomorrow." In June, Upexi's investors registered the resale of 43.85 million shares, exactly the company's initial float in April. The prospectus submitted on Monday revealed that the original buyers now seek to sell 35.97 million common shares, along with 7.89 million shares linked to pre-funded warrants. The document noted that if the warrant holders exercise their warrants, Upexi would only receive $7,890, while selling the shares would not yield any proceeds.

In the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Upexi stated, "We will not sell any common stock in this offering, and we will not receive any proceeds from the sales by the selling stockholders."

Upexi is in a tough spot, but several other Sol Treasury companies rated "Hold" by Cantor are also struggling.

Sol Strategies, one of the earliest coin hoarders, has taken a relatively stable approach, initially relying on external acquisitions to expand its business and later shifting to leveraging fundraising and Sol infrastructure for organic growth. The current price is down 60.8% from its all-time high.

On the other hand, DeFi Development, which transitioned from a real estate firm, has seen a 53.6% drop from its peak but also suffered a 20.88% crash yesterday.

As for the "Ethereum Microstrategy" SharpLink Gaming, its current stock price is also disappointing.

On June 13, SharpLink Gaming filed an S-3ASR registration statement with the U.S. SEC, authorizing the resale of up to 58.6997 million shares related to PIPE financing. This implies that over 100 PIPE investors can opportunistically sell their holdings. Panic quickly spread, and SharpLink Gaming plummeted over 70% during the day. Although SharpLink's Chairman of the Board and Consensys CEO Joseph Lubin clarified that this filing is merely a routine registration process post-PIPE, aimed at "registering shares for potential resale," and does not indicate any actual selling. However, the subsequent stock performance sadly proved that the previously over 40x surge of SharpLink Gaming was short-lived.

Recently started hoarding coins, still frenziedly entering the market

Although the "micro-strategies" of ETH and Sol have all failed, new meme coin treasury companies are still FOMOing into the market.

On June 24, following the previous market news that "multiple BNB strategic reserve companies are being formed," Nano Labs Ltd (stock code: NA) announced that it has signed convertible note subscription agreements with multiple investors to issue a total of $5 billion in convertible notes. The notes have a term of 360 days, with no interest on the principal before maturity. Holders can choose to convert the notes into Class A common stock of the company within the term, with an initial conversion price of $20 per share. Nano Labs plans to initially acquire $1 billion worth of BNB through this financing and private placement, targeting 5% to 10% of the total circulating supply of BNB for long-term holding.

Upon the release of this news, Nano Labs' pre-market shares immediately surged by 65%.

On June 23, Eye Drug Digital Technology Company Eyenovia (stock code: EYEN) announced that it has signed a securities purchase agreement to conduct a $50 million PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) offering to institutional accredited investors for the establishment of its Hype Reserve Plan. The company had a full-year revenue of only $56,000 in 2024, a net loss of $50 million, and liabilities exceeding $10 million. With cash flow depleted and the failure of new product trials, Eyenovia is facing delisting for various reasons.

The strategy of transitioning to the HYPE reserve has given Eyenovia an opportunity for "rebirth," and after the relevant news came out, Eyenovia's stock price soared by 134% in a single day.

As the US crypto environment gradually relaxes, the frenzy for meme coin stocks has not yet subsided. However, the prolonged low trading prices of early "on-chain micro-strategy" players have sounded the alarm for latecomers.

Original Article Link