The MicroStrategy of Solana
How Sol Strategies (CSE: HODL) went from a sub-NAV curiosity to a 20-bagger, and why we walked away at the top.
Every so often the market hands you a company selling for less than the cash and assets sitting in its own treasury. In a bull market, that almost never happens. In August 2024, it happened in crypto.
01 / The SetupA dollar of crypto trading for eighty cents
The name was Cypherpunk Holdings, a small outfit on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker HODL (OTC: CYFRF). Insiders had been buying ahead of a vaguely announced “strategy shift,” and the stock was trading at a market cap below the value of what the company actually held.
That is the textbook definition of a Benjamin Graham net/net, and it is our wheelhouse. When we dug into the balance sheet, the math was almost too clean:
- 86,294 SOL~$18M
- 56 BTC~$5M
- Cash~$5M
- Total assets (no debt)~$28M
- Market capitalization~$23M
- Effective discount~20% below NAV
So you could buy a dollar of Solana, Bitcoin and cash for roughly eighty cents with no debt and a management team quietly accumulating shares. We added it to the portfolio at a modest 3% weighting around C$0.12. As we put it at the time, these holding companies tend not to have their value reflected for a long time, but as a cycle heats up the gap closes. We couldn’t resist buying a crypto company below NAV.
“When you buy something for less than NAV, it’s hard to lose.” — Mark Jeftovic, The Sovereign Capitalist
02 / The CatalystFrom discount to “the MicroStrategy of Solana”
The discount didn’t last. The company rebranded as Sol Strategies, recovered a written-off FTX bankruptcy claim at a 122% premium, rolled the proceeds into more Solana, and stood up its own public validator to stake the stack. Management was running Michael Saylor’s playbook — but for SOL instead of Bitcoin. No half-measures. All-in.
The share price went vertical. By the October update, HODL was up 122% in a single month and roughly 408% from our entry, the strongest single-month performer in the portfolio that year. The net/net gap had not just closed; the stock now traded at a large premium to NAV.
This is the moment that separates a good idea from a good trade. A discount-to-NAV thesis has a built-in expiration date: once the gap closes, the original reason you bought is gone. So we started taking money off the table on the way up rather than waiting for a top we couldn’t predict.
“Take your original investment off the table, plus some profits to make it feel good — then let the rest ride.” — Mark Jeftovic, The Sovereign Capitalist, Trade Alert to Scale Out, Nov 2024
03 / The ExitKnowing when the story changes
The run kept going. By January 2025 the position was up north of 2,000% from the August entry, and the company was sitting on nearly 190,000 SOL. But two things had quietly changed under the surface.
First, the setup had fully inverted a stock once trading below NAV was now carrying a price-to-book multiple near 25. Second, and more important, the broader regime shifted: the launch of the $TRUMP token in mid-January marked the blow-off top of the memecoin trade, and with it the alt-season that had powered the entire move. The thesis that justified holding had run its course.
So we sold. The mid-February trade alert took us out of Sol Strategies, Solana and Raydium together, rotating proceeds back into Bitcoin. The realized return on the position was 2,043%.
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May 2024Flagged as a speculative net/net — market cap below asset value. Not yet in the portfolio.
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Aug 2024Added officially at ~C$0.12, a ~20% discount to NAV.
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Oct 2024Rebrands to Sol Strategies, goes all-in on SOL. Up +408% from entry; we begin scaling out.
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Nov 2024Trade alert to take original capital plus profits off the table; let the rest ride.
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Jan 2025Gains north of 2,000% since entry. The discount is now a steep premium.
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FEB 2025Position closed for a +2,043% realized return as the memecoin top signals alt-season is over.
04 / The VindicationThe other half of the trade is the one you don’t make
The exit looked good immediately, and better with time. After we left, Sol Strategies sold off its remaining Bitcoin treasury near the highs to buy still more SOL right as Solana rolled over and Bitcoin marched on to fresh all-time highs. The stock subsequently gave back roughly half its value.
We had hoped they would keep the Bitcoin as an anchor. They went the other way, and the position we had ridden near-perfectly became a cautionary tale for the people who held on. The lesson we drew: a crypto-treasury strategy only works when the asset being stockpiled is the dominant one. Stack the strongest horse, not the second-fastest.
“We managed to ride that one near perfectly — exiting our position for a stellar 2,043% return when I surmised the memecoin trade was over.” — Mark Jeftovic, The Sovereign Capitalist, July 2025
What This Trade Teaches
- Value still exists in crypto. A Graham-style net/net (buying assets for less than they’re worth) can appear even in a roaring bull market, if you’re reading balance sheets instead of charts.
- Buying below NAV stacks the odds. When you pay eighty cents for a dollar of liquid assets, your downside is cushioned and your upside is the closing of the gap plus the move in the assets themselves.
- Sell the thesis, not the ticker. The reason to own it was the discount. Once the discount became a premium, the original edge was gone. So we scaled out on the way up rather than marrying the position.
- Regime change is an exit signal. The end of the memecoin mania told us alt-season was finished. We didn’t need to nail the top tick; we needed to leave before the story broke.
- Stack the dominant asset. Treasury strategies compound only when the reserve asset is the strongest one in the room. Trading Bitcoin for SOL at the highs is exactly what turned a winner into a loser for everyone who stayed.
For educational purposes only. This case study describes a closed position from the model portfolio and is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Figures are drawn from contemporaneous portfolio updates and trade alerts; prices are in Canadian dollars unless noted. Do your own research.