Specialty finance company Mill City announces $450 million offering to establish corporate Sui treasury
Mill City Ventures III, a short-term non-bank lending and specialty finance business company, announced Monday the private placement for an offering worth $450 million to "initiate" a corporate Sui treasury strategy.Karatage, a London-based proprietary hedge fund specializing in digital assets, founded by Marius Barnett and Stephen Mackintosh, acted as the lead investor, with an equivalent investment from the Sui Foundation.Barnett will become chairman of the board of directors of Mill City, and Mackintosh will become chief investment officer, effective upon the closing of the offering."We're launching at a pivotal moment when both institutional crypto and AI are reaching critical mass — creating significant opportunities across blockchain infrastructure,” Mackintosh said in a press release. "We believe that Sui is well positioned for mass adoption with the speed and efficiency institutions require for crypto at scale, plus the technical architecture capable of supporting AI workloads while maintaining security and decentralization."The success of corporate bitcoin treasuries from the likes of Strategy has led to a surge in both BTC and ETH treasuries, with altcoin treasuries starting to trickle in. Sui is a Layer 1 blockchain developed by Mysten Labs that uses the bespoke Move programming language originally designed by Meta's defunct blockchain team. The offering included participation by Big Brain Holdings, Galaxy Digital, and Dr Jack Kong – NLABS Fund, as well as investment from Pantera Capital, M2, Electric Capital, GSR, Selini, Protagonist, and ParaFi Capital, among others."Sui was built to provide the scalability, speed, and security needed to support the next generation of decentralized applications and real-world crypto use-cases for consumers and institutions alike — from stablecoins to artificial intelligence to gaming and broader finance," said Christian Thompson, managing director at the Sui Foundation.Sui's price traded down 3.4% to $4.10, according to The Block's SUI price data. It is the 15th-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $14.2 billion. Over the last 24 hours, it saw $2.2 billion of trading volume.Mill City shares traded higher by 16% to $6.88, according to Yahoo Finance. The company has a market cap of around $40 million.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.