This is an interesting interview of Brian Rudick, the Chief Strategy Officer at Upexi, a leading Solana treasury firm. Solana is a high performance blockchain governed by its native cryptocurrency, SOL, which is the sixth largest cryptocurrency by marketcap. A number of US-based corporations have been accumulating SOL for their treasuries as it is becoming a key benefactor of traditional finance moving onto the blockchain.
As we reported in September, the top five corporations holding SOL together hold about $4.5 billion of the digital asset. Upexi is number three, holding just over 2 million SOL worth some $400 million.
On October 10-11, the cryptocurrency market saw a significant crash, with SOL declining about 14%. The market has since recovered, and in the Rudick interview he explained why the impact of this “flash crash” was basically zero for Upexi.
“Honestly, for us, the impact was basically zero, and I think that’s true for most treasury companies. We follow a buy-and-HOLD strategy. We’re not doing aggressive on-chain trading or using leverage to chase yields. We hold spot Solana and we stake it. So when there’s a crash, what really happens is that your net asset value (NAV) drops temporarily, and then, in this case, it mostly recovered.
Unless you’re highly levered, it doesn’t affect your strategy or risk profile much. If anything, it can present a really attractive entry point. If you’ve got cash ready, you can buy the dip. But otherwise, nothing changes for us.
The real risk is excessive leverage: if you’re borrowing heavily and the token you’re holding crashes and stays low, that’s where problems start. We’re very conservative. We only have about $40 million in outstanding debt, against roughly $400 million in Solana. That’s single-digit leverage. And that line of credit can be repaid at any time.
So for treasury companies, the only way you become a forced seller is if you’re highly levered, and token prices crash and stay down for an extended period. Most of these companies ladder their debt maturities across multiple years. So the risk only crystallizes if we’re stuck in a deep bear market for years, not weeks.
Regarding the volatility of the crypto market, Rudick stated:
“Most of the investors coming into a treasury company like ours aren’t trying to trade in and out over a few weeks.
They’re not chasing short-term moves. They’re here because they understand the long-term value accrual — and that comes from mechanisms like capital issuance, staking yield, and compounding SOL per share. They accept that crypto is volatile. That’s part of the game. But over time, if the value-per-share increases, that’s what they care about.
Also, treasury companies can monetize volatility in ways others can’t. For example, when we, or a company like MicroStrategy, issue convertible notes, there’s an embedded option in those instruments. And the more volatile the underlying asset is, in this case, our stock, the more valuable that option becomes to the buyer.
So volatility actually helps us raise capital more efficiently in some cases. Investors will pay more for that embedded volatility premium. So rather than being a risk, it can actually be an asset if you know how to structure around it.
Asked why his firm chose to invest in Solana, as opposed to other top cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum or Bitcoin, Rudick explained:
“Solana stood out to us as the leading high-performance smart contract blockchain. There are three reasons why:
In terms of its tech, Solana processes transactions in parallel, like modern processors do. It’s the first second-generation smart contract chain, launched in 2020, so it benefits from newer architecture and design principles, but also has meaningful network effects.
There’s also its ecosystem, which is incredibly versatile. From DeFi, DePIN, social, gaming, tokenization, stablecoins, meme coins, AI agents, etc. You can build anything on Solana.
Its traction is also strong. If you look at metrics on platforms like Artemis.xyz, Solana is already leading in key areas: daily active users, DEX volumes, and dApp revenues.
Ethereum is the biggest chain and the most well-known, no question. But Solana is making huge inroads, and we’re trying to position ourselves where the market is going.”