Pantera’s Santori says staking, access gives DeFi Dev Corp’s Solana strategy edge over ETFs

Pantera Capital general partner Marco Santori said Wednesday that DeFi Development Corp’s solana-focused strategy offers several advantages over a traditional exchange-traded fund (ETF), particularly through active participation in decentralized finance.Pantera is an investor in DeFi Development Corp, and Santori also serves on the firm’s board.Speaking during an X Space hosted by The Block on May 21, Santori said the firm’s pivot from a real estate software company to accumulating solana earlier this year was designed to go beyond passive exposure."The plan in the beginning was that this was going to be a much better way to stack solana than an ETF for a whole number of reasons, one of which is that we can do things like getting involved in DeFi," Santori said. "Most of Wall Street didn't know about DeFi just a while ago, and now there's this pretty straightforward vehicle by which they can access it directly — not just by buying and holding the coins, but investing in a team that's actually going to execute treasury strategies that are going to generate revenue and increase the 'North Star' metric, which is solana-per-share." DeFi Development Corp holds a total of 400,091 SOL as of publication, after initially purchasing $9.6 million worth of the token in April. The firm also disclosed plans to acquire an unnamed Solana validator business for $3.5 million on May 5 to support self-staking of its SOL holdings."Staking is the first strategy, and it's something that ETFs can't even do today," Santori continued. "DeFi Dev Corp can also, because it's an operating company and not just a fund, actually LP [be a liquidity provider] into DeFi, so they can participate in liquidity pools. They can do things that a simple, passive fund can't. We think it's just a much better vehicle for participating — not just in DeFi but in the growth of crypto." The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has not approved any spot solana ETFs as of May 21 and has yet to rule whether crypto ETFs can stake assets. On April 14, the agency delayed its decision on Ethereum ETF staking rules, saying more time was needed to evaluate long-term regulatory implications.Marco Santori joined venture firm Pantera Capital, in April after serving as chief legal officer at crypto exchange Kraken. He joined the board of DeFi Development Corp that same month.Solana traded at around $171 per token as of publication, according to The Block's SOL Price Page. Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.