Growing SOL Per Share: How Our Validator Business Benefits DFDV Shareholders

Since day one, our mission has been to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns to shareholders compared to holding SOL directly, while also accelerating Solana’s emergence as foundational infrastructure for a decentralized future. While we pursue this mission through multiple avenues, participating directly in Solana’s infrastructure via high-performance validator operations is a core focus that falls within our domain of expertise. 

With our recent acquisition of Janover Inc., DeFi Dev Corp. (Nasdaq: DFDV) has become the second U.S.-listed publicly traded company behind Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) to operate a Solana validator. This validator business is critical to growing our key performance metric: SOL per Share (SPS), a measure of how much SOL is held by each DFDV share.

In this post, we’ll explain why SPS matters, how to think about validator economics, how our newly acquired validator compares to peers, and how this ties back to our core mission: increasing SOL/share and creating long-term value for DFDV investors.

Operating Profitably At Scale

On May 5, 2025, we announced the acquisition of a validator business for $3.5M, a rebranding to DeFi Development Corp., and plans to self-stake our SOL through our validators to maximize staking revenue. Today, DeFi Dev Corp. now operates one of the highest-performing validators in the network, which plays a crucial role in validating transactions and securing the chain. In return, they generate native staking rewards and MEV tips, or a small payment made to validators as a reward for including or prioritizing certain transactions in a block.

Our validator business manages approximately 625,000 SOL in third-party delegated stake, or roughly $108M worth of SOL. It also has a run rate of $1-3M annually in gross profit entirely from external delegation. Because our infrastructure costs are fixed, every additional SOL of stake has a gross margin of nearly 100%—a powerful, scalable, compounding income model. As SOL continues to appreciate, our validator operations will become increasingly beneficial to shareholders.

Industry-Leading Performance

Operating a top-tier validator requires technical excellence and expertise. Because institutional and retail market participants are looking to get every last bit of yield out of their staked SOL, the slightest difference in performance can mean SOL is staked elsewhere. Fortunately, our team has allowed our validators to consistently rank among the best in the network when looking across various key metrics. That is to say, our validator business:

• Ranks within the top 200 validators on Solana and are, on average, within 5 bps of “perfect” performance.

  • Note: Figment, one of the largest institutional validators with more than $1B in SOL staked, typically runs 50 bps short of “perfect” performance.
    

• Generates 20-30% more revenue from block rewards compared to the median validator within the network (the “cluster”).
  

• Consistently earns higher Total Vote Credits (TVC), a key measure of validator performance, compared to other validators, resulting in better staking rewards for our users.
  

• Offers competitive staking fees with 0% on inflation rewards and only 10% on MEV tips.

This efficiency translates into stronger yields that allow DeFi Dev Corp. to attract stakers and thus earn even more staking rewards. Interested stakers can earn a 7.5-8% net-of-fee staking yield, notably above the industry average. When staking our treasury SOL, we earn a 9-11% all-in yield annually. This compares to Coinbase’s current net-of-fee staking yield of 5.64% after charging a 35% commission fee.

The Flywheel: More SOL, Higher SPS

Validator income, or the rewards earned in exchange for running the Solana network software and participating in validating transactions, is denominated in SOL. As such, that revenue flows to the bottom line of our balance sheet and translates to even more SOL accumulated. This is core to our growth model; SOL earned through validator operations directly increases our Solana Per Share (SPS) - our key performance metric and the most precise representation of underlying shareholder value.

Because the validator business operates with near-zero marginal costs, it acts as a high-leverage engine for SOL accumulation. In effect, the validator business is a flywheel:

1. Generate staking yield and validator income in the form of SOL
   

2. Move SOL earned back into the DeFi Dev Corp. treasury
   

3. Stake SOL with DeFi Dev Corp. to earn the maximum amount of SOL
   

4. Increase total treasury holdings, thereby driving SPS growth.

A Transparent & Trusted Operation

As a public company, DeFi Dev Corp. is held to high standards of transparency and accountability. Our validator operations are fully audited by Wolf & Company, providing stakeholders with confidence in the integrity of this revenue stream. Between Coinbase’s exuberant staking fees and the fact that DeFi Dev Corp. is the only other publicly-listed U.S. company running a validator; we’re uniquely positioned to service institutions, corporates, ETF issuers, and others looking to stake their SOL with a trusted, credible, transparent, and competitive validator to earn a yield.

With strong performance, minimal fees, and transparent reporting, we expect third-party delegators to increasingly stake with us, further growing external stake and validator income. For instance, we recently signed an LOI with Kraken for a strategic partnership whereby Kraken will delegate a portion of its current (4.5M SOL) and future SOL staked to DeFi Dev Corp. Furthermore, we continue to make progress on partnering with other large platforms to accelerate staking revenue growth. As the industry and technology evolve, we plan to fine-tune our validators and stay on top of the latest ecosystem developments to ensure our validators remain competitive, highly profitable, exceptionally performant, and value-add to DFDV shareholders.

Scaling What Works, Building for What’s Next

Looking ahead, we plan to continue scaling our validator operations by onboarding new strategic partners, growing external delegated stake, and optimizing validator performance to remain among the network's highest-yielding and most efficient validator businesses. Our infrastructure is built to scale with near-zero marginal cost, making every additional SOL delegated a powerful driver of shareholder value.

Being the only U.S. public company besides Coinbase operating an institutional-grade Solana validator business, we believe DeFi Dev Corp. is uniquely positioned to serve ever-growing institutional and corporate demand with credible, cost-effective, and high-performing staking infrastructure.

With a fully audited operation, industry-leading yields, minimal fees, and alignment with Solana’s long-term success, we intend to make DeFi Dev Corp. the go-to platform for institutional staking. We are building more than a validator business; we are building the next-generation crypto treasury model that scales SOL per Share and delivers real, compounding value to our shareholders.

_{Disclaimer: This is for informational purposes only and reflects publicly announced developments, milestones, and media coverage related to DeFi Development Corp. (“the Company”). The information contained herein does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor should it be relied upon as investment advice or a recommendation regarding any securities. Certain statements in this post may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of publication. DeFi Development Corp. undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. All information is accurate as of the date posted and is subject to change without notice.}