Bitcoin drops ahead of the long weekend

The crypto market overall is starting the long weekend down, with bitcoin hovering around $108,000 levels not seen since early July. The asset is down 3.5% in the past 24 hours. solana, meanwhile, was also down 2% in the past 24 hours.

Yet, there was some good news for the crypto space, including bitcoin miner Iris Energy, which jumped 16% this morning. The company’s full-year earnings report showed records for revenue and net income, and shares also benefited from the announcement that management had secured “preferred partner status” from Nvidia and expanded “its total GPU fleet to 10.9k NVIDIA GPUs.”

Total revenue increased to $501 million, a 168% increase versus FY24, while net income stood at $86.9 million, compared to a net loss of $28.9 million for FY24.

In addition, it reported EBITDA of $241.4 million, including $1 billion in annualized revenue from bitcoin mining “under current mining economics.”

There was also a slew of solana news, notably in the token’s corporate treasury space, which is gaining momentum.

Defi Development Corp. announced the launch of DFDV UK, “the first solana-focused public treasury vehicle in the United Kingdom.”

DeFi Development Corp. was flat in morning trading.

The new entity will be formed via the acquisition of Cykel AI, “by a group of investors, with DeFi Dev Corp holding an approximately 45% equity stake alongside local management and board members,” according to the announcement.

This represents the company’s first move as part of its “Treasury Accelerator strategy,” which is set to expand solana treasuries globally, Parker White, DFDV’s COO and CIO, told Sherwood News.

“This will give UK investors access to a best-in-class solana accumulation vehicle managed by a local team with support from DFDV. We plan to announce other companies in the coming weeks and months as we continue to scale this area of our business,” White said.

He added that this program creates long-term value for the DFDV brand and shareholders globally and directly via its infrastructure fee arrangement with these businesses, as it provides a source of revenue to DFDV that is not reliant on capital markets activity.

Defi Dev. has five other vehicles “in the pipeline at various stages of development,” the announcement said.

The company also acquired 407,247 solana yesterday, bringing its total holdings to 1.83 million solana. This makes it one of the largest solana corporate holders.

Finally, Sharps Technology, a medical device and pharmaceutical packaging company that recently entered the solana treasury fray, announced the closing of its $400 million PIPE deal.

Shares tumbled more than 11% this morning.

Alice Zhang, CIO of Sharps Technology, told Sherwood that with this transaction closed, the company is positioned to build one of the largest solana treasuries in the world, with up to $1 billion in potential proceeds if all warrants are exercized.

“We believe solana’s unmatched speed, scalability, and adoption make it the foundation for a new era of internet capital markets, and this raise gives us the resources and partnerships to execute on that vision,” Zhang said. 

The company also signed a nonbinding letter of intent with the Solana Foundation, which commits to “selling $50 million of SOL at a 15% discount to a 30-day time-weighted average price, subject to certain conditions being met.”

A slew of institutions backed the deal, including Monarq Asset Management, ParaFi, and Pantera. Cantor Fitzgerald is the lead placement agent.