From selling candy to transforming into Crypto Assets, the US-listed company Upexi starts betting on the "Solana strategy".

GSR, a well-known cryptocurrency trading and investment firm, has made a $100 million private equity investment in Nasdaq-listed consumer products company Upexi, betting on its soon-to-be-fully transformed Solana financial strategy. (Synopsis: Musk fights his xAI computing power!) Rumor raises a new round of funding, targeting $6 billion) (Background added: Meanwhile "Bitcoin Life Insurance" received $40 million in financing, what are the characteristics? Anti-inflation, Sam Altman support) Under the trend of following the Strategy's bitcoin investment and accumulation financial strategy, there are many imitators of the Solana strategy, including Canadian listed Sol Strategies Inc., US NASDAQ-listed Janover, etc., consumer goods listed company Upexi has become the latest traditional company to hold a similar strategy. On April 21, GSR, a well-known cryptocurrency trading and investment firm, announced that it has made a $100 million private equity investment (PIPE) in Nasdaq-listed consumer goods company Upexi, Inc. (ticker: UPXI) to bet on its soon-to-be-fully transformed Solana financial strategy. Affected by the news, Upexi's stock price soared more than six times during the day. Back in February of this year, Upexi unveiled its roadmap around cryptocurrencies. The consumer goods development, manufacturing and distribution company reported a significant decline in revenue and continued net losses. Embracing cryptocurrencies has become a transformational strategy. GSR bets on Upexi's Solana financial strategy, leading a $100 million private equity investment GSR provides direct financial support for Upexi's new on-chain strategy. Upexi Corporation announces that it has entered into securities purchase agreements with certain investors to issue 43,859,649 shares of common stock (or prepaid warrants as a substitute) at a price of $2.28 per share, for a total proceeding of approximately $100 million (net of placing agent fees and other issuance expenses). Upexi plans to use approximately $5.3 million of that amount for working capital and debt repayments, with the remaining funds used to build the company's Solana-based financial system and accumulate Solana assets. In addition to GSR leading the round, a number of institutions and individuals from the cryptocurrency community participated in the round, including Big Brain, Anagram, Delphi Ventures, White Star Capital, Maelstrom (Arthur Hayes Family Office), Hivemind, Borderless, Morgan Creek, Elune Capital, Delta Blockchain Fund, etc. In addition, a number of well-known angel investors participated, including Austin Federa, Frank Chaparro, Joey Krug, Bartosz Lipinski, Larry Wu and Jordan Prince, as well as Upexi CEO Allan Marshall. Lily Liu, president of the Solana Foundation, also said that the transaction marks another step in connecting traditional financial institutions with decentralized infrastructure. After the announcement, Nasnaq-listed Upexi shares rose 639.20% to $16.78. As of the close of U.S. stocks on April 21, Upexi shares retreated to $9.89. While this news has attracted widespread attention from the crypto market, some crypto industry insiders have given their own positive views. Arif Kazi, head of business development at Sonic SVM, said on the X platform: "There has been a shift in the public market's perception of on-chain earnings. Upexi isn't hedging risk — they see SOL staking as infrastructure. Native staking is becoming an institutional-grade financial instrument." He said this could be the largest allocation of Solana's native finance to a U.S. public company. The pricing is higher than the market price, and there are no terms such as tokens, lock-ups or convertible bonds. Solana's architecture makes this possible: parallel execution through Sealevel technology, sub-second final confirmation times, and a stable validator network layer. This is the infrastructure built for the institution. When fiscal strategy is combined with DeFi primitives, it's not just a fit, it's an acceleration. Solana now offers an operations manual for capital allocators. From gummies to cryptocurrency: Upexi's on-chain transformation Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Upexi used to focus on the development, manufacturing and distribution of consumer products, including Cure Mushrooms, a medicinal mushroom product, LuckyTail, a pet care brand, and the Prax line, which focuses on energy gummies. Although this traditional consumer goods model once gave it a foothold in the market, it has never gained much attention in the capital markets, with a market capitalization of only $3 million as of Friday, April 18 (last Friday local time). Upexi, Inc.'s latest earnings report shows significant financial challenges. For the six months ended December 31, 2024, the Company's revenue declined and net losses continued. Revenue for the reporting period was $8.36 million, down significantly from $15.74 million in the year-ago quarter. The company's net loss was $2.93 million, slightly better than the $3.79 million loss in the year-ago quarter. Or because of such financial pressures, cryptocurrencies are seen by Upexi as a new opportunity. In fact, Upexi's crypto strategy was already underway a few months ago. On March 3, Upexi announced that its subsidiary, Quantum Hash, had signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to acquire a 2 MW crypto farm. The mine is currently less than half occupied. Quantum Hash plans to upgrade existing installations after transactions are completed and introduce the latest and fastest mining machines to maximize hash rate and monthly Bitcoin production. On February 6, Upexi announced that it is actively pursuing further investment opportunities in the near future, expanding its portfolio through direct investments in cryptocurrencies, mining, and mergers and acquisitions in the fintech space. The Company updates shareholders on its current business operations and discloses its long-term crypto and mining strategic plans. Upexi's CEO, Allan Marshall, 55, joined the company as CEO in May 2019 after retiring as a serial entrepreneur with a focus on the tech industry in recent years. He started his career in the transport and logistics industry. "The company is in the midst of a series of rapidly evolving opportunities and will continue to drive its strategy forward in the coming weeks and months," he said. According to the official website, after the transformation, Upexi has the following development strategies: first, a financial strategy: a diversified digital financial strategy covering a variety of altcoin asset portfolios; The second is the strategic direction: through mining, node operation, staking, streaming services, and HaaS (computing power is...