Solana Gets Another Treasury Firm with $2B Plan Backed by DeFi Protocol Marinade

Beijing-based VisionSys AI (VSA), a publicly-traded firm dedicated to brain-machine interface technologies and artificial intelligence systems, unveiled Wednesday a $2 billion Solana SOL$219.59 treasury strategy, joining a growing trend of listed companies pivoting to digital asset treasury plays.

The initiative, led by VisionSys subsidiary Medintel Technology, is to begin with a plan to acquire and stake $500 million in SOL within the next six months, the company said in a press release. The firm teamed up with Marinade, one of the largest staking operators on Solana with a $2.2 billion total value locked on the protocol, to manage and generate yield on holdings.

VisionSys AI’s stock was down 20% premarket following the news, but has been a hot name this year, rising more than 300% since coming available for trade in April. The firm yesterday appointied early Solana backer Hakob Sirounian as chief strategy officer to oversee the firm’s “initiatives in blockchain and decentralized technologies.”

SOL was among the top performers in a rallying crypto market on Wednesday, ahead 6% to $219.

The company is the latest addition to a roster of public firms pivoting to holding crypto directly on their balance sheets, seeking to mirror early adopters like Micheal Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR), which has become the largest corporate owner of bitcoin BTC$116,526.65.

The trend has expanded beyond BTC to other tokens such as ether ETH$4,296.84 and SOL, with firms seeking to generate income with yield-earning startegies on decentralized finance (DeFi) markets. Solana treasury firms such as Forward Industries (FORD), Defi Development (DFDV) and Upexi (UPXI) collectively hold over $3 billion in SOL, Blockworks data shows.