Janover completes rebrand as former Kraken execs double down on Solana treasury strategy

DeFi Development Corporation (ticker JNVR), the company formerly known as Janover, is bulking up on more Solana. The firm, which was acquired and rebranded by ex-Kraken executives earlier this month and officially rebranded today, has purchased 88,164 additional SOL tokens valued at approximately $11.5 million, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

This marks DDC’s latest crypto purchase since closing a $42 million financing round, bringing its total SOL holdings to approximately $34.4 million. The move is part of the firm’s aggressive SOL strategy, which includes spinning up network validators and staking its treasury assets. In time, the company plans to expand into the "long-term accumulation" of other cryptoassets, according to the announcement.

The DeFi Development Corporation is part of a trend of publicly-traded firms taking a bet on Solana, the blockchain upstart that saw a massive rebound beginning last year following the launch of several popular consumer applications like memecoin generator Pump.fun.

Sol Strategies, for instance, rebanded last year from Cypherpunk Holdings — a holding company initially focused on acquiring bitcoin and crypto-related equities — to develop a Solana-investment thesis similar to Strategy’s approach to Bitcoin. Onchain data also shows that Galaxy Digital has swapped over $100 million worth of ETH for SOL in the past two weeks amid Ethereum’s struggles to maintain its price momentum and market share. Both firms are looking to uplist onto the Nasdaq.

The strategy differs from Michael Saylor’s bitcoin treasury approach in that staking on Solana turns SOL into a productive asset. In some sense, firms like DDC, Sol Strategies and publicly traded consumer product firm Upexi, which also announced a Solana plan this week, operate like Bitcoin miners that invest in specialized hardware to secure the network and earn rewards.

DeFi Development Corporation describes itself as "an AI-powered online platform that connects the commercial real estate industry by providing data and software subscriptions." The firm’s main business line involves offering "software as a service" for commercial property debt financing. Janover first became involved in crypto before rebranding when it began accepting BTC, ETH and SOL for its services.

DDC’s now records a “SOL per Share” metric of 0.17, valued at $23.47 per share. JNVR, which rocketed up earlier this month following the company's first SOL purchase, is up about 3% in a volatile trading day. The firm intends to update its stock ticker.

CEO Joseph Onorati and COO Parker White joined the firm earlier this year, coming over from crypto exchange Kraken. Founder Blake Janover and Director William Caragol will remain on the board, which also added Marco Santori, former chief legal officer of Kraken, as a member.

The firm has a staking relationship with Kraken that will see the exchange delegate a portion of its 4.5 million SOL holdings, worth about $500 million, to DDC-operated validators.