SkyAI sells its whole Solana treasury to fund a $201M buyback

SkyAI, the Nasdaq-listed company formerly known as Sharps Technology, has sold its entire Solana (SOL) treasury and now holds about $223.8 million in cash as of Oct. 16, money it plans to use to buy back most of its own shares. In mid-September it was the fifth-largest Solana treasury among public companies, The Block reports.

From 2 million SOL to zero

• Sept. 14: SkyAI reaffirmed its Solana strategy and said it held more than 2 million SOL.
• Oct. 11: its buyback announcement disclosed sales of roughly 1 million SOL; a later SEC filing put the rest at about 600,000 SOL.
• Oct. 19: the company said it had "completed the sale of all of its SOL".

The buyback

SkyAI is offering $3 in cash per share or warrant for up to 95% of outstanding shares, about $201.3 million if fully taken up. That would leave roughly $22.5 million before costs. According to its SEC filing, the offer opened on Oct. 16 and runs until Oct. 29 unless extended or ended, needs at least 50% of each class to be tendered and has no financing condition. A condition that SOL stay above $100 was dropped, since the company no longer owns any.

Not every shareholder is on board. Bastion Trading, which owns close to 10% of SkyAI, asked for an independent review of the SOL sales and wanted $3.50 a share, limits on insiders and exclusion of strategic adviser warrants. It said it would not take part on the current terms.

Our take

The digital-asset treasury pitch was that a listed company could give investors leveraged exposure to a token. SkyAI shows the reverse can also happen: when shares trade below the value of the coins and cash behind them, selling the tokens and handing money back can look more attractive than holding. SkyAI says it still wants to build a payments business on Solana stablecoin rails, a network that recently set a record for stablecoin transfers, but it has not said whether it will rebuild a SOL position. Shares (SKYA) rose 4.5% to $2.77 on Monday.