In a week of broad declines across crypto markets, DeFi Development Corp. (Nasdaq: DFDV) kept adding Solana to its treasury. Over the same period, the company's common stock fell roughly 21%, while its CHAD preferred shares climbed to record highs — a divergence rooted in how differently the two securities are built.

Treasury grows 12% since August

The Boca Raton-based company acquired approximately 22,070 SOL and SOL equivalents in the past week, according to a press release issued October 12 via GlobeNewswire and announced on X. Holdings now stand at about 2,586,282 tokens, an increase of 12% since the company's August 12 earnings update.

The weekly purchases have been gradually tapering: roughly 101,381 SOL in mid-September, valued at about $11.4 million, followed by 47,706, then 26,203, and now 22,070 SOL worth close to $2.4 million.

"Short-term volatility has not changed our conviction or our commitment to accumulating SOL," CEO Joseph Onorati said in the release. He pointed to tokenized equities trading on Solana and Samsung's plan to add stablecoin functionality to 82 million U.S. Galaxy devices as supporting developments. For a company whose treasury is the token itself, those ecosystem developments feed directly into the value of its holdings.

DFDV shares declined about 4.2% on Monday and roughly 21% for the week. At around $4.32, the stock carries a market capitalization of approximately $141 million.

Formerly known as Janover, a real estate software company, DFDV pivoted to Solana in April 2025, modeling its approach on Strategy's Bitcoin treasury playbook — a structure built on selling securities to raise cash for token purchases. In February, Cryptopolitan reported that DFDV held around 2.2 million SOL, then worth about $184 million, while its market cap stood at only $96 million. Preliminary third-quarter estimates issued October 5 showed cash more than doubling and net asset value per share up more than 100% since August.

Preferred stock pays 13% and set records through October 9

CHAD (Nasdaq: CHAD) is DFDV's variable-rate perpetual preferred stock, a security with no maturity date that pays out ahead of common shareholders. It carries a 13% annual dividend on the $10 stated amount, or $1.30 per share each year, distributed every business day when declared. CHAD paid its first dividend on October 1.

Because those payouts are pegged to a fixed stated amount rather than to SOL's market price, the income stream does not shrink when the token falls — a structural difference from the common shares, which sit behind the preferred's senior claim and carry the residual equity risk.

The release cautions that staking and validator rewards "may be insufficient to support dividend payments."

CHAD hit record highs during the week through October 9 and is approaching $10 as SOL pulls back. Dan Kang, chief strategy officer, said investors are "recognizing its distinct income proposition," adding that CHAD "can support accretive SOL per share growth without issuing additional common shares." That accretion runs through the funding stack: capital raised in the preferred market buys SOL, adding tokens per common share without new common issuance.

CHAD's September initial public offering priced at $8, below its own $10 stated amount, so the move toward par is as much a recovery as it is a breakout. On October 6, DFDV authorized a program to repurchase CHAD shares if they trade below par. Part of the cash used to purchase SOL comes from a $300 million CHAD at-the-market program — the same preferred-market channel behind the accretion Kang described. The release itself supplies the markers to watch from here: whether daily dividend declarations continue, whether staking and validator rewards prove sufficient to fund them, and how the pace of weekly purchases develops its tapering sequence.