BitGo to manage e-commerce firm Upexi’s growing Solana treasury worth over $100 million

BitGo, the major crypto custodian looking to go public , has inked a deal with Upexi, the e-commerce company that sells products ranging from medicinal mushroom extracts to dog grooming kits, as the startup looks to expand its Solana token treasury.

The deal comes a day after Upexi announced it had practically doubled its Solana position to over 595,000 SOL tokens, worth approximately $100 million. 

Upexi will leverage BitGo’s secure custodial and over-the-counter trading services to manage its growing digital asset portfolio. Like other firms, including SOL Strategies and DeFi Development Corporation, Upexi will stake its SOL holdings to earn revenue from protocol rewards. 

Staking, the process of locking up tokens to provide economic security for a blockchain, is an increasingly large business. BitGo’s head of activation previously told The Block that approximately half of the assets it keeps in custody are staked, which has driven revenue to the firm and its customers. 

Upexi is part of a trend of firms pursuing a Solana investment strategy, not dissimilar to Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin buying spree. However, because assets can be staked on Solana, the firm could also be compared to publicly traded Bitcoin miners, which invest capital in machinery to secure and profit from the Bitcoin network. 

“As both public and private companies continue to expand allocation of corporate treasury assets to bitcoin and other digital assets, we are excited to work with Upexi to provide a safe and secure environment for not only the organization but also its shareholders,” BitGo Director Nathan Stump said in a statement. 

Upexi has a $100 million investment commitment anchored by GSR to buy and stake as many SOL tokens as possible. On Monday, the firm announced it had purchased 326,347 discounted locked SOL for an average price of $135.22 per token.