Cathie Wood teams up with UAE for $300 million investment; another Nasdaq-listed company accumulates coins and transforms into a "Solana treasury"

Brera Holdings announced its transformation into a "Solana treasury" and will be renamed Solmate. It is reported that after economist Laffer joined the company, Cathie Wood quickly decided to invest; she had previously referred to Laffer as a "mentor." Solmate plans to pursue a dual listing in the UAE, leveraging local connections to enhance its SOL token accumulation capabilities. After the announcement, the company's share price fluctuated sharply, surging as much as 592% to $52.95 during trading, and closing with a high gain of 225%.

Written by: Bao Yilong

Source: Wallstreetcn

Renowned investor Cathie Wood has teamed up with the UAE to inject $300 million into a Nasdaq-listed football company, which will transform into a treasury company dedicated to accumulating Solana (SOL) tokens.

On September 18, Brera Holdings, which owns stakes in football clubs from Italy to Mongolia, announced that after securing a $300 million private investment led by Abu Dhabi's Pulsar Group and Cathie Wood's ARK Invest, the company will begin accumulating Solana tokens. At the same time, the company will be renamed Solmate.

The new company plans to pursue a dual listing in the UAE, leveraging "UAE connections to enhance SOL accumulation capabilities." After the news was announced, the Nasdaq-listed company's share price once soared 592% to $52.95, and closed with a gain of 225%.

(Brera Holdings once surged 592%)

This deal reflects the ongoing expansion of the digital asset treasury concept, but recently, the stock performance of such companies has become increasingly polarized. Some companies' share prices have fallen below the value of their crypto holdings, and the market is reassessing the premium for this business model.

Star Investors and Heavyweight Executives Join

To inject strong momentum into this transformation, Solmate has assembled an impressive team of executives and board members.

Crypto industry legal pioneer Marco Santori will serve as the new company's CEO. In an interview, Santori said he believes Solmate's differentiated advantage lies in its proximity to capital, stating:

Where is the capital of the world today? It's the UAE. That's what initially attracted me.

Santori was previously a general partner at blockchain investment group Pantera Capital and served as Chief Legal Officer at crypto exchange Kraken for five years. He is known in the industry for creating the "Simple Agreement for Future Tokens" (SAFT).

Even more notably, economist Arthur Laffer, famous for proposing the "Laffer Curve" theory and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019, will join the company's board.

According to reports citing a person close to Brera, after Laffer confirmed his involvement, Wood quickly decided to invest in Solmate. Cathie Wood has previously described Laffer as a "mentor."

Cathie Wood's participation further enhances Solmate's star power.

The Solana "Treasury" Track Is Becoming Increasingly Crowded

Despite the backing of high-profile figures, Solmate will still enter an already crowded track. Transforming listed companies into "treasury companies" dedicated to specific crypto tokens has become a trend, especially in the Solana sector.

According to reports, Santori's former employer Pantera Capital just this week helped a medical device company raise $1.25 billion, and this company also plans to accumulate SOL tokens.

Earlier, another crypto investment firm, Galaxy Digital, announced that it, along with two other investors, co-led a $1.65 billion private placement for a Solana holding company called Forward Industries. Santori himself also revealed that he has recently reviewed as many as 80 treasury company fundraising proposals.

To stand out in the competition, Solmate has established a deep partnership with the Solana Foundation.

According to Santori, the Solana Foundation will sell some tokens to Solmate at a discount and receive two board seats. In return, Solmate will collaborate with the Foundation on projects in the UAE and share related revenues. Santori even predicted:

I believe Wall Street will build on Solana, not Ethereum.

Following the "Token Hoarding" Precedent, but the Market Shows Signs of Fatigue

Solmate's business model essentially follows the successful precedent of MicroStrategy transforming into a "bitcoin treasury company."

By issuing stocks or bonds to accumulate cryptocurrencies, these companies aim to drive their share price increases to outpace the value of the crypto assets they hold. According to statistics, more than 100 companies have adopted this strategy.

However, this once-popular model is now facing a test.

Some critics argue that this is nothing more than a "marketing and financial engineering gimmick." In recent weeks, the share prices of many well-known crypto treasury companies have fallen sharply, with some companies' market capitalizations even dropping below the value of their crypto holdings, indicating that investors are reassessing the premium of such stocks.

A striking example is the packaging company Eightco, previously mentioned by Wallstreetcn, which announced it would purchase Worldcoin, associated with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Its share price soared 3,000% in a single day, but the gain later fell back sharply to 714%.

It is worth noting that the broker Cantor Fitzgerald, controlled by the Lutnick family of the US Secretary of Commerce, provided advisory services for both of these private placements for Solmate and Eightco.