Cathie Wood partners with the UAE to invest $300 million, another Nasdaq-listed company "hoarding coins," transforming into a "Solana treasury"

Famous investor Cathie Wood has teamed up with the UAE to invest $300 million in a Nasdaq-listed football company, which will transform into a treasury company specializing in accumulating Solana tokens.

On September 18, Brera Holdings, which holds stakes in several 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 dual-list in the UAE, leveraging "UAE connections to enhance SOL accumulation capabilities." Following the announcement, the stock price of this Nasdaq-listed company surged by 592% to $52.95, closing with a gain of 225%.

(Brera Holdings surged by 592%)

This transaction reflects the ongoing expansion of the digital asset treasury concept, but recently, the stock performance of such companies has become increasingly divergent, with some companies' stock prices falling below the value of their held cryptocurrencies, leading the market to reassess the premium on 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 directors.

Marco Santori, a legal pioneer in the crypto industry, will serve as the new company's CEO. In an interview, Santori stated that he believes Solmate's differentiated advantage lies in its proximity to capital, saying:

Where is the capital 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 the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken for five years, 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 awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019, will join the company's board of directors.

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

Wood's entry further enhances Solmate's star aura.

The Solana "Treasury" Track is Becoming Increasingly Crowded

Despite the backing of heavyweight figures, Solmate will enter an already crowded track. Transforming public companies into "treasury companies" for specific cryptocurrency tokens has become a trend, especially in the Solana space According to reports, Santori's former employer Pantera Capital just assisted a medical device company in raising $1.25 billion this week, which also plans to hoard SOL tokens.

Earlier, another cryptocurrency investment firm, Galaxy Digital, announced that it co-led a $1.65 billion private placement for a Solana holding company called Forward Industries along with two other investors. Santori himself revealed that he has recently reviewed about 80 project financing proposals from treasury companies.

To stand out in the competition, Solmate has reached a deep cooperation with the Solana Foundation.

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

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

Imitating the "token hoarding" precedent, but the market shows signs of fatigue

Solmate's business model essentially imitates 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 stock prices to rise above the value of the crypto assets they hold. Statistics show that over 100 companies have adopted this strategy.

However, this once-popular model is facing challenges.

Some critics argue that this is merely a "marketing and financial engineering trick." In recent weeks, many well-known crypto treasury companies have seen significant declines in their stock prices, with some companies' market values even falling below the value of their held crypto assets, indicating that investors are reassessing the premiums on such stocks.

A striking example is the Eightco packaging company, which previously announced it would purchase Worldcoin associated with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, causing its stock price to soar 3000% in a single day, but the increase later significantly retreated to 714%.

It is worth noting that the consulting services for the private placements of Solmate and Eightco were provided by the brokerage Cantor Fitzgerald, controlled by the family of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.