Hyperliquid treasury merger vote delayed, postponing $888 million deal

A merger designed to form a Hyperliquid digital asset treasury (DAT) with aspirations of raising $1 billion will take at least another two weeks to complete.

"Annoyingly we have to delay the shareholder vote for two weeks," Hyperliquid Strategies David Schamis posted to X on Tuesday. "In order to close we need [over 50%] of the outstanding shares to vote in favor of the deal."

The plan to create Hyperliquid Strategies, a DAT focused on accumulating and holding HYPE tokens, was first announced in July when Nasdaq-listed Sonnet BioTherapeutics, Inc. said it had agreed to merge with Rorschach I LLC to create the new crypto treasury firm.

Rorschach is a recently formed company created by an entity affiliated with Atlas Merchant Capital LLC, which in turn is an affiliate of Paradigm Operations LP, a major crypto VC and Hyperliquid backer. Hyperliquid is a popular decentralized perpetual exchange.

Including existing HYPE tokens already held by participants investing in the new DAT, and $305 million in cash, the deal was valued at $888 million when first announced.

Then last month, Hyperliquid Strategies told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission it hoped to raise up to $1 billion by selling shares. 

Although voting on the merger has been delayed, Schamis appeared confident that those Sonnet shareholders who have yet to vote will eventually favor the deal. "While over 95% of the votes that have been received to date have voted in favor we are still lacking the requisite total number of votes to get to the finish line," Schamis said. "We are confident that we will be able to achieve this by the December 2 date that we have set."

Schamis urged Sonnet shareholders to vote as soon as possible.

By most accounts, the DAT boom subsided weeks ago as the number of newly announced treasury companies fell. Simultaneously, DATs' market caps have cumulatively been taking a hit as the wider cryptocurrency market slumps. Many treasury firms have begun launching stock repurchase programs.