Please standby, we're about to begin. Good day, everyone. Welcome to the Sol Strategies Fiscal Quarter Ended December 31, 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' prepared remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. On the call with us today is Leah Wald, Chief Executive Officer; Doug Harris, Chief Financial Officer; Max Kaplan, Chief Technology Officer; and John Ragozzino from ICR. At this time, I’d like to turn the call over to Mr. John Ragozzino from ICR. John, please go ahead.

Good afternoon and thank you all for joining the Sol Strategies fiscal first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that certain statements discussed on this call are based on information as of today, March 3, 2025, and contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties given our operating history, market volatility and industry growth. Trends could materially deviate from today's levels. As such, actual results could differ materially from our forward-looking statements. The comments made during this conference call were in the latest reports and SEDAR+ filings, each of which can be found on our website, www.solstrategies.io or under our profile at www.sedarplus.ca. The company has made assumptions that no significant events occur outside the company's normal course of the business and the current trends and respective digital assets continue. Listeners are cautioned that the metrics of our business may fluctuate and may increase and decrease from time to time and such fluctuations are beyond the company's control. The company does not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements except where required by law. The company also wants to caution listeners that past performance is not indicative of future performance and current trends in the business and demand for digital assets may not continue and listeners should not put undue reliance on past performance and current trends. This call will touch on certain unaudited performance metrics of the business through the quarter ended December 31, 2024, provided in the earnings press release issued today. And I would encourage each of you to review the forward-looking statements, Risk Factor disclosure and similar disclosures in today's press release. Please note the dollar amounts referenced are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. Leah will review the Sol Strategies positioning within the rapidly growing digital assets industry and the December quarter. Doug will then present the financial highlights for the quarter and Max will discuss our technology and operational initiatives before we open the floor for your questions. With that, let me turn the call over to Leah.

Thank you, John, and good afternoon, everybody. I'll briefly review Sol Strategies positioning within the rapidly growing digital asset industry and the December quarter and update some key metrics. The December quarter was a pivotal period for us. While we acknowledge the recent volatility in Solana's price, we remain steadfast in our conviction that this is a long-term growth story, one in which Sol Strategies is uniquely positioned to lead. Market fluctuations are an inherent part of emerging asset classes and as a company; we are focused on executing our strategy, strengthening our foundation, and continuing to drive value for our stakeholders, independent of short-term price movements. During the quarter we saw a meaningful shift in the regulatory landscape with the incoming U.S. administration signaling a more structured and pragmatic approach to digital asset oversight. This combined with global regulatory advancements has contributed to rising institutional confidence in blockchain networks, particularly within the Solana ecosystem. Further validating this momentum, CME Group announced on Friday the upcoming launch of Solana futures, a major milestone that underscores the growing institutional demand for regulated crypto derivatives. This development not only enhances Solana's credibility and appeal amongst traditional finance players, but also expands the range of investment vehicles available further solidifying its position as a premier blockchain well suited for institutional adoption. This quarter marked a significant transformation for Sol Strategies as we fully transitioned into a technology driven company with an exclusive focus on Solana's high performance blockchain. While we provided a comprehensive market update last month, today we want to highlight our strategic vision, the tangible business progress we've made and why we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the most compelling opportunities in the space. We are successfully executing on our strategy despite market uncertainty. Our business strategy is built on…

Thank you, Leah. I'm pleased to present Sol Strategies financial results for the three months ended December 31, 2024. While we are happy with the results, they do not fully reflect the transformative changes initiated under Leah's leadership as CEO, which continue to unfold and are expected to positively impact the company's financial performance in 2025 and beyond. Please note that we may refer to the quarter ended December 31, 2024, as Q1 2025 or the first quarter. The quarter ended December 31, 2023, as Q1 2024 or the prior period, and the year ended September 30, 2024, as fiscal 2024. We've also rounded most of the financial numbers for the sake of brevity. Total comprehensive income for the three months ended December 31, 2024, was $7.8 million, an increase of about $869,000 from the total comprehensive income of $6.9 million for the three months ended December 31, 2023. The main reasons for the increase in total comprehensive income are as follows. A realized gain on dispositions of cryptocurrencies in the first quarter of $4.4 million from nil in the prior period, taking invalidating income of $1.25 million in Q1 2025 also nil in the prior period. In Q1 2025, operating expenses increased approximately $1 million from the prior period to $1.3 million mainly due to the following: a $590,000 increase in stock-based compensation to $629,000 in the first quarter; a $229,000 increase in professional fees to $273,000 in Q1 2025 mainly due to increased legal expenses in the first quarter compared to the prior period; $136,000 increase in consulting fees to $243,000 in Q1 2025; Investor Relations expense increased $154,000 in Q1 2025 compared to nil in the prior period; and we had a foreign exchange gain of $204,000 in Q1 2025, compared to a foreign exchange loss of…

Thank you, Doug. I want to introduce myself. I am Max Kaplan, newly named Chief Technology Officer of Sol Strategies. I became CTO shortly after joining the company as part of the Orangefin transaction. I am excited to be in this role and my experience in blockchain dates back to 2017, when I joined Kraken as one of its first engineers. As CTO, I am committed to educating both our investors and the broader public on the transformative value of blockchain technology, with a strong focus on Solana's unique strengths and institutional potential. Before diving into our technology advancements, I'd like to provide some context for those less familiar with Solana's ecosystem. What is Solana? Solana is a high speed, low cost blockchain network designed to handle thousands of transactions per second, making it one of the most scalable platforms for DeFi, NFTs, DePIN and institutional applications. Unlike older blockchains that struggle with congestion and high fees, Solana's architecture allows for near instant settlement and low transaction costs, making it a critical piece of infrastructure for the growing digital economy. What is a Validator? Validators are the digital picks and shovels of the Solana network, providing the essential infrastructure that keeps the network secure and operational. They process and verify transactions, maintain decentralization and power the blockchain's high speed performance. Investors and users who hold SOL can participate by staking their tokens with Validators, earning rewards while contributing to the network's growth and security. As adoption accelerates, Validators and staking infrastructure are becoming increasingly valuable, positioning them as foundational players in the expansion of Solana's ecosystem. Sol Strategies has built one of the most secure staking setups in the industry, reinforced by our selection as a staking provider for upcoming 3 IQ stake SOL ETF. Institutional adoption requires trust and…

Thank you, Max, for breaking down our Validator strategy and why it's so central to our growth within the Solana ecosystem. At Sol Strategies, we're not just building a staking platform; we're defining the future of institutional staking. Our progress isn't just about execution, it's about seizing a unique first mover opportunity to establish Sol Strategies as the go-to platform for institutional SOL staking. By combining institutional grade infrastructure, cutting edge technology and deep industry relationships, we are positioning ourselves at the forefront of a rapidly emerging market, one that is only just beginning to take shape. As confidence in digital asset surges, backed by stronger regulatory clarity and increasing institutional interest, Sol Strategies is leading this transition. We aren't waiting for institutions to adopt Solana. We are actively building the infrastructure to make it seamless for them. With secure, high performance staking solutions and a technology first approach, we are expanding the possibilities of staking in ways no one else is. We are building more than just a business. We are shaping the foundation of institutional staking for years to come. The momentum is real and we're just getting started. Thank you all for joining us today. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Certainly. Thank you, Ms. Wald. [Operator Instructions]. We'll go first this afternoon to Bill Papanastasiou at KBW.

Good evening, and thanks for taking my questions and congrats on all the success recently. As mentioned, there's a lot of exciting technology behind the Solana ecosystem. Perhaps you can spend a minute or two discussing what verticals excite you the most and do you see the potential for other opportunities down the road? Thanks.

Yes, I could take that one. And Bill thanks for your question. I think this is definitely a really transformative time for Solana. I think the -- in terms of things that I'm personally excited about, really, I think it comes down to just improving speed and performance. And with that, so many new applications can be deployed on Solana. My personal favorite thing on Solana is really trading. I come from a trading background, but talking about other verticals specifically, I think wallets, I think RPCs, there's really interesting things that are happening all around Solana. And I think as the network grows just pretty much everything is going to grow.

Yes, I'll follow-up there. Bill, it's great to hear your voice and thank you so much for that great question. I think it's -- I appreciate that it's a broader question and I think Max answered it perfectly. Now, beyond the tech, I think that it's evident, especially from the recent news, even just yesterday on a U.S. strategic crypto reserve, that SOL was mentioned to be a potential allocation to that there is just so much institutional adoption that's happening right now and institutional interest. We were recently named as one of the staking providers for 3iQ's upcoming staked SOL ETF. We're in conversations with other issuers and today we're very proud to announce that we recently appointed Luis Berruga to the Board who is one of the most world renowned ETF experts. He was the former CEO of Global X. It's evident from all the different filings in the United States and abroad that ETFs are coming soon. I won't speak on behalf of the regulators nor do I have any inside information on that regard. But with all the filings and the movements in the space with the acknowledgments in EDGAR A system, there is a lot of movement that's happening. There's also a lot of funds and other asset managers in the United States that have mentioned that they are looking to use Solana rails for their tokenized asset funds. As we know, that has always been the hot button topic across the Board for investment banks as well as asset managers on when will real world asset tokenization funds happen. We have seen some. We've also seen the success of tokenized asset funds with BUIDL, with BlackRock custody by BonY. So we've already seen those advances that have happened over a year ago. But now…

And then, secondly, for my second question, hoping you could just lay the land in terms of how competition looks in this space with respect to other companies offering validation services. Any color there?

Yes, and that's a great question too. As a businesswoman, that's what excites me the most. And maybe I'm too competitive here, but I do believe that we have created a moat. I absolutely believe that we have created the best service offering for Solana staking, and there's multiple reasons why. I'll talk a little higher level from a business perspective and then ask Max to jump back in here to talk about the compliance and security standards that he mentioned previously. But we know this space. I think that it's important to understand the deep background of our team. You do have Max, who again, I'm going to tap him in a second, but one of the first engineers at Kraken. He was the Senior Director of Engineering at Kraken and I couldn't be more proud that we were able to acqui-hire him through the acquisition of Orangefin Ventures. He created that reporting and plumbing and knows what works, what doesn't, and what should be improved upon for staking services at an institutional level from a technological perspective. I've been working in the crypto asset management space for at least eight years, which sounds wild to say out loud, but I do believe that I understand what funds are looking for and I do know at least what's been technologically interesting for United States asset managers. The list runs deep. Our CFO Doug, who spoke earlier, also has been actively engaged in capital markets both on the audit side and sell-side for his whole career. And it continues on with different Board members. We have Ungad Chadda, who was a Senior Executive at TMX. Why do I think that matters? That matters because the team works really well together and with all our different perspectives, we have been looking…

Yes, absolutely, Leah, I think you did a great job there and I'll kind of touch on two things is, number one; we are extremely, extremely focused on Solana. And your question was, how do we compare with competitors? One of the reasons is that, we are really exclusively focused on Solana. And because of that, we know the network really, really well. Some other competitors out there are operating on many different chains. And that's great. I don't want to comment on anything there, but blockchain is really complex and a lot of these different blockchains don't have a lot of things in common. Solana just due to how fast it is and just how different it is really, there's so many differences between Solana and many other network. And we know Solana really well because we focus on it and we're able to do a lot to get a lot of edges, and really offer competitive APYs just in terms of technical stuff as well as data that, that can be hard to get if you don't really know Solana inside and out -- excuse me, that's one thing. The second thing really is, we're able to operate really, really efficiently, mainly just due to all the automation that we have built out. Where we really don't need that many people and we're able to do this really quickly and really efficiently. And because of that, we can offer lower commissions and things like that. So I think just adding on to what Leah said, that is what I would also say.

Very informative and helpful answers guys. Thanks so much.

Thank you so much, Bill, for joining.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. And we'll take a question now from John Ragozzino of ICR. John, please go ahead.

Hi, thanks. There's a couple of questions that came up from the participants on the webcast side. The first one is do you have any opinion on Solana being included in the U.S. reserve? And you think that other countries will likely follow suit?

Thank you so much, John. And what a question, especially with what happens in the market today. I think that it's a bigger question. It's an economic question. It's a political question. We've been thinking about it a lot and speaking to a lot of the partners, we believe that Trump's announcement of the U.S. strategic crypto reserve is a major shift in financial policy, echoing historic moves to hold hard assets as reserves. I did see some of the participants here have been in Bitcoin industry with me. I noticed some of the names and they probably remember that Saifedean Ammous book and The Bitcoin Standard very much spoke about how civilizations that adopt hard money assets with fixed supply and resistance to the basement tend to achieve greater economic stability. Now, Bitcoin has firmly established itself as that sovereign asset with a fixed $21 million supply, decentralized security, deep liquidity. It has evolved from a speculative asset into digital gold, a store of value that governments, corporations, institutions have continuously recognized as a hedge against monetary expansion, systemic risk, need I say further than BlackRock, right? And then also El Salvador using its legal tender for many years now. So I think that it's very interesting, and what's especially interesting for us here on the Sol Strategies earnings call is that Solana SOL was included. Now in Solana's inclusion in the reserve is, I think, extraordinarily significant. As it signals a broader recognition of blockchain's role beyond just a store of value and specifically the recognition of Solana, and while Bitcoin has established itself as a store of value asset, and again, as seen through how investors are investing in these Bitcoin ETFs with their IRAs and 401(k) here in the United States or retirement funds, Solana's presence…

Okay. We have one more follow-up from the participants on the webcast and that is around the uplift into the Nasdaq. They're asking if there's any anticipated timeline around this.

Of the strategic reserve?

No, no, separate question. I apologize. The question when do you anticipate to complete the uplifting to the Nasdaq exchange?

Sure. And that's a great question, of course. And I can't speak on behalf of Nasdaq or the regulators in the United States. However, we are actively pursuing. It must be noted that this is a cross list. So it is a very different mechanism and process than doing an S1 in the United States. So we are going through the process that's required, working with U.S. Council alongside our Canada Council to finish going through the hurdles we announced that we have signed a new auditor and everything is moving as according to plan. Obviously, I can't speak to the date, but we're feeling very optimistic that things can move in our direction and are working towards making that happen.

Okay. That's what we've got from the webcast. Thanks, Leah.

Thank you.

[Operator Instructions]. We'll go next now to Vishal Jaiswal, Private Investor.

Hi. No, actually my question was regarding Nasdaq, which you guys just got answered. So thank you so much.

Absolutely, and Vishal, thank you for asking the question, both you and John. And of course, we will keep everybody appraised as updates come out. And of course everybody can call anytime that they have questions. I think it is important to also note that we recently upgraded our OTC ticker from Pink to QX, which is the highest and most senior OTC exchange. So we're moving forward on all fronts.

And we'll go next now to Denny Finelli. Denny, please go ahead.

Hi all. I'm Denny, shareholder. Just wondering in regards to the Canadian markets, we've had ETFs in Bitcoin and Ethereum for a few years now. Any plans for Solana on the Canadian side?

Yes, and thank you again for the question. Now you have me smiling because this is my background and maybe I for many people on this call, maybe they don't know me. So maybe I should back up for one second and then I'm excited to answer that question because I've been there since the get-go of SOL ETFs being approved in Canada. Even though I am American, prior to stepping in as the CEO of Sol Strategies, I have been again working in the United States asset management market for about eight years with Lucid Investment Strategies. After Lucid again we were special -- we were the specialized RAA in the United States investing in GBTC, which was the first in the United States security that was a closed end fund that was listed OTC market, so you could allocate for any of your discretionary accounts. After that I co-founded and ran a firm called Valkyrie Investment. So Valkyrie launched some of the first crypto ETFs in the United States. It was very exciting and we were quite toe to toe right after the Canadian ETFs were launched. So the Canadian ETFs were launched as you probably remember, Purpose and Evolve were back in February 2021. Valkyrie and ProShares launched our Bitcoin Futures ETF in October 2021 as well. Prior to that as you probably remember, 3iQ had a listed closed end fund that was also a fantastic product. And as you know, we are partnered up with 3iQ and hoping that their stake SOL ETF comes to fruition as well in short order rooting to further them here. But you're absolutely right, it was very innovative by the OSC in Canada to approve a SOL -- sorry a spy ETF much earlier than the United States did. So…

Cool.

Thank you. And it appears we have no further questions this afternoon. Ms. Wald, I'd like to turn things back to you for any closing comments.

Yes. Thank you so much again. Everybody, thank you so much for joining today. Thank you for participating and being a part of our early journey here. We're excited. We'd love and appreciate your feedback and we look forward to the next call. Thank you again.

Thank you, Ms. Wald. Again, ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's Sol Strategies fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2024, earnings conference call. Again, thanks so much for joining us, everyone, and we wish you all a great remainder of your day. Goodbye.