Solana’s SOL SOL got a double dose of institutional adoption this week as two publicly traded firms revealed major initiatives centered on the blockchain’s ecosystem — one targeting liquid staking, the other aiming to raise up to $1 billion for direct investment.

Canada-listed Sol Strategies filed a preliminary base shelf prospectus on Tuesday to offer up to $1 billion in securities, including equity and debt, to deepen its exposure to Solana.

There is no immediate plan to raise capital, but the filing provides the firm with flexibility to act quickly on future opportunities. The move comes just weeks after Sol Strategies secured a $500 million convertible note and spent its first $20 million tranche to purchase over 122,000 SOL.

Separately, DeFi Development Corp. (Nasdaq: DFDV) said it is adopting liquid staking token (LST) infrastructure developed by Sanctum, becoming the first public company to invest in Solana-based liquid staking tokens (LSTs).

Through its new token dfdvSOL, the company will allow users to stake SOL with DeFi Dev’s validators while retaining liquidity, enabling participation in DeFi or redemption at any time.

Staking refers to locking up tokens (such as SOL) to help run the network and earn rewards in return. Validators are specialized computers that process and verify transactions to maintain the blockchain’s security and ensure its smooth operation.

The dual moves show growing confidence in Solana’s staking and validator infrastructure among corporate players and could mark the early stages of a broader institutional push toward SOL.

Ether ETH led major tokens with a modest gain, jumping above $2,700 early Thursday as broader crypto markets remained range-bound despite a flurry of macro and corporate headlines.

Ether-based spot ETFs recorded net inflows, reinforcing institutional appetite for the asset even as bitcoin BTC flows slowed, traders said.

XRP’s price remained largely unchanged after Nasdaq-listed VivoPower announced a $121 million allocation toward building an XRP-based treasury reserve — echoing a bitcoin-based strategy made famous by Strategy (MSTR) and Metaplanet.

«While US stocks rose after a federal court blocked Trump’s tariffs, Bitcoin slumped after the Fed decided to hold interest rates,” said Nick Ruck, director at LVRG Research, in a Telegram message to CoinDesk.

“These signals could indicate investors remain positive in the long term but are taking risk off from Bitcoin in the short term,» Ruck added.

Meanwhile, bitcoin lost the $108,000 level with overall market capitalization dipping 2.5%. Major tokens cardano’s ADA ADA, BNB Chain’s BNB BNB, dogecoin DOGE and Solana’s SOL SOL were little changed in the past 24 hours.

Outside of the top ten, toncoin TON fell in early Asian hours after a more than 20% surge the day before on reports of a partnership with Elon Musk’s xAI to integrate the Grok AI service within its app.

Musk later said on X that “no deal has been signed,” to which Toncoin’s Pavel Durov said it was agreed in principle but had formalities pending.

Traders enter goldilocks zone

As such, some traders say markets are now entering what some are calling a “Goldilocks zone,” where data remains stable, major risks have been absorbed, and catalysts are pending.

«Volatility across most asset classes has collapsed,» wrote QCP Capital in a note Tuesday, citing retreating yields on U.S. and Japanese long-dated bonds.

“We now find ourselves in a Goldilocks zone: recent data prints remain largely unaffected by the tariff policy introduced last month,” it said. “It will take time for companies and consumers to adjust pricing and spending patterns. Only in Q3 are we likely to see these dynamics reflected in the numbers.”

Yields on 10- and 30-year Treasuries dropped below 4.5% and 5%, respectively, while Japan’s 30-year JGB yield fell under 3%, the firm minted. Despite historic debt levels, the near-term fiscal panic appears to have cooled.

Bitcoin BTC options worth billions of dollars are set to expire this Friday at 08:00 UTC on Deribit, making the $95,000 to $105,000 range a critical zone for potential volatility and directional cues.

At press time, a total of 93,131 bitcoin monthly options contracts, worth over $10 billion, were due for settlement, with 53% being calls and the remainder being puts. A call option represents a bullish bet on the market, while the put option offers insurance against price slides. On Deribit, one options contract represents one BTC.

The open interest distribution is such that a large amount of «delta» exposure is clustered at the $95,000, $100,000 and $105,000 strikes. This means traders holding positions at these strikes have a significant net directional risk to bitcoin’s price.

Gamma, which measures the sensitivity of options to changes in BTC’s price, will peak as the expiration nears. Therefore, price volatility could trigger widespread hedging by both investors and market makers (who are always on the opposite side of investors’ trades), further exacerbating price turbulence.

«The largest delta concentration is in Deribit BTC’s May 30 expiry, with $2.8B delta exposure led by strikes at $100K, $105K, and $95K, which has a potential for strong gamma-driven flows into month-end,» decentralized crypto trading platform Volmex said in an explainer on X.

«Any move can trigger aggressive dealer hedging, fragile gamma environment! Expect volatility!,» Volmex added.

At press time, Bitcoin changed hands at $107,700, having reached record highs above $111,000 the previous week, according to CoinDesk data.

Deribit’s DVOL index, which represents the options-based 30-day implied or expected volatility, continued to decline, suggesting minimal concern over volatility driven by the upcoming expiry.

Volmex’s annualized one-day implied volatility index ticked slightly higher to 45.4%. That implies a 24-hour price move of 2.37%.