DeFi Development's common stock now trades at about half the value of its SOL holdings

The common stock fell about 21% in a week when SOL fell about 9% ^[2][19], so the equity moved roughly 2.3 times as far as the token ^[23]. The windows differ (Decrypt gives SOL's drop over seven days and dates CHAD's records to the week ended October 9 ^[16]), so the ratio is approximate. CHAD pays out before common shareholders ^[17], so a loss in SOL's price lands on the common first.

Cryptopolitan puts the stock at about $4.32 and the market value at about $141 million; Decrypt has $4.41 and about $144 million, against roughly $287 million of SOL with the token near $111 ^[5][4][3]. That is 49% to 50% of the holdings ^[21]. The value that belongs to common holders is what remains after CHAD and the debt Decrypt says the company carries ^[15]. Neither article reports CHAD's price after October 9, the number of CHAD shares outstanding or the size of the debt, so that remainder cannot be computed from them.

CHAD is cheaper money near $10 than it was at $8. The rate is variable, and the current 13% on a $10 stated amount is $1.30 a share ^[7], a 16.25% yield on the $8 IPO price ^[22]. A share sold at $10 raises 25% more cash than one sold at $8 ^[25]. Part of the SOL cash comes from a $300 million at-the-market program ^[9]. Decrypt says it sells new CHAD shares gradually at market prices, so the closer CHAD trades to $10, the more SOL each new share buys ^[10]. Dan Kang, the chief strategy officer, said: "For common shareholders, CHAD provides a funding source that can support accretive SOL per share growth without issuing additional common shares." ^[13]

"Short-term volatility has not changed our conviction or our commitment to accumulating SOL," CEO Joseph Onorati said in the release ^[14]. Since mid-September the weekly buy has gone from 101,381 SOL to about 22,070, a fall of 78% ^[11][24].

In our view the week shows two securities carrying different risks: CHAD holders have a senior income claim, and the common holders have SOL's volatility at more than twice the token's own move. Two outcomes would prove that wrong. If SOL falls further and CHAD slips back under $10, the preferred is carrying more of the treasury's risk than its price now implies. If the common closes toward SOL's value without SOL rising, the market is telling the company that the senior claims are small. Cryptopolitan also called the move toward par "as much a recovery as it is a breakout" ^[18], since the IPO priced at $8.