Solmate Buys $50 Million in Solana Tokens as ARK Invest Takes 11.5% Stake

TLDR

• Solmate Infrastructure purchased $50 million worth of SOL tokens from the Solana Foundation at a 15% discount to market price
• ARK Invest owns approximately 11.5% of Solmate Infrastructure shares as of September 30, 2025
• The tokens will power bare-metal validators in Abu Dhabi, UAE as part of Solana’s “By Design” program
• Solana Foundation negotiated the right to nominate up to two directors to Solmate’s board
• Solmate is the rebranded successor to Brera Holdings, shifting from football ownership to digital asset infrastructure

Solmate Infrastructure announced Tuesday it purchased $50 million worth of SOL tokens directly from the Solana Foundation. The company secured the tokens at a 15% discount to market price.

The purchase came during last week’s market downturn. Solana dropped nearly 22% over two days, reaching a two-month low by Saturday.

The tokens will be used to power bare-metal validators in Abu Dhabi, UAE. This is part of the Solana Foundation’s “By Design” program.

As part of the deal, the Solana Foundation negotiated the right to nominate up to two directors to Solmate’s board. This gives the Foundation direct influence over the company’s governance.

ARK Invest’s Position

A Schedule 13G filing shows ARK Invest owns approximately 11.5% of Solmate shares. This ownership was recorded as of September 30, 2025.

ARK previously bought 6.5 million shares in an oversubscribed PIPE transaction. The firm then made subsequent purchases totaling about 780,000 shares.

ARK Investment Management was the top holder in the company as of September 30. Solmate currently has a market value of $1 billion.

Company Transformation

Solmate is the rebranded successor to Brera Holdings. Brera was an Irish holding company focused on multi-club football ownership.

The rebranding happened last month following a $300 million investment. The investors included the Solana Foundation, ARK Invest, RockawayX and UAE-based Pulsar Group.

The company is now shifting from sports to digital asset treasury and infrastructure. The focus is specifically on building Solana infrastructure.

Santori called the company “brand new Solana infrastructure” for the UAE. He described digital asset treasuries as “capital accumulation machines.”

He positioned Abu Dhabi as a base for validator performance. Santori said the UAE is the “Capital of capital.”

Solmate will partner with RockawayX on staking infrastructure. The company plans to stand up bare-metal validators in Abu Dhabi.

Market Performance

SOL traded between $191.42 and $209.45 during the October 13-14 analysis window. This represented roughly a 9% swing.

As of October 14 at 15:31 UTC, SOL was trading at $197.06. The token was up 0.22% over 24 hours.

The session printed a high at $211.31 and a low at $192.24. The early rejection near $211 was followed by stabilization around $196-$198.

Solmate said it will announce more initiatives following the validator deployment in Abu Dhabi.

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