DeFi Dev Corp Launches Dogwifhat Validator: Staking Rewards Split with Community – Here’s How

DeFi Development Corp, the first public company focused on accumulating and compounding Solana (SOL), has announced a new validator partnership with the Dogwifhat (WIF) community.

The partnership will see the launch of a dedicated Dogwifhat validator on the Solana blockchain.

The collaboration brings together institutional-level infrastructure and one of the most active memecoin communities on Solana.

According to the company, it will handle all technical operations, infrastructure, and performance management.

Both parties will jointly promote the validator and seek stake delegations, including through an application to the Solana Foundation Delegation Program.

1/ The hat stays on!

Today, we're announcing our newest validator partnership with the one and only @dogwifcoin.

A dedicated $WIF validator – operated by DFDV, owned by the dogwifhat community.

Institutional infrastructure meets one of $SOL's most iconic communities. pic.twitter.com/VQK9SU1eOm

The validator will be operated by DeFi Dev Corp, but owned by the Dogwifhat community.

Parker White, CIO and COO of DeFi Dev Corp, said the collaboration merges high-level infrastructure with one of the most active communities in crypto.

“Our goal is simple: maximize performance, maximize visibility, and help secure Solana, all while deepening our alignment with WIF and the broader community it represents,” he said.

The validator will follow a performance-based model. After covering expenses such as infrastructure and vote fees, the remaining rewards, staking income, block rewards, and MEV will be split equally between DeFi Dev Corp and the WIF community.

The move is part of DeFi Dev Corp’s larger strategy to grow its “SOL per Share” metric, a figure that tracks how much SOL backs each share of DFDV. The company has been expanding this metric through Solana acquisitions, staking, and validator operations.

DeFi Dev Corp, formerly known as Janover, shifted its focus to Solana in April 2024 after being acquired by former Kraken executives.

The company has since positioned itself as a Solana-first public firm, drawing comparisons to MicroStrategy’s approach with Bitcoin. It currently holds around 609,000 SOL, valued at approximately $107 million.

Dogwifhat (WIF), the Solana-based memecoin at the center of the validator partnership, traded at $0.86 at press time, with a 24-hour price increase of over 22%.

The token saw over $711 million in trading volume in the past day, according to CoinGecko. WIF launched in November 2023 and quickly gained traction, in part due to support from prominent trader Ansem.

DeFi Dev Corp previously secured a staking deal with Kraken, under which the exchange delegated a portion of its 4.5 million SOL holdings, worth about $500 million at the time, to DeFi Dev Corp’s validators.

Following its launch of a Dogwifhat validator and community staking rewards, DeFi Development Corp is pushing deeper into the Solana ecosystem, despite regulatory friction in the U.S.

Yesterday, the firm announced it would tokenize its shares through xStocks, a Solana-based platform developed by Backed.

$DFDVx is coming to Solana very SOON thanks to @BackedFi & @xStocksFi!

Who is ready?! https://t.co/nwAFjjSKiE

The move is in collaboration with Kraken, which partnered with xStocks in May to offer tokenized shares of major U.S. companies like Apple and Tesla to global investors.

@krakenfx will launch tokenized versions of over 50 U.S. stocks and ETFs for non-U.S. users, offering 24/7 trading via Solana.#kraken #solana #stockshttps://t.co/j2QJ7K0hLs

DeFi Dev Corp’s shares will soon join that lineup, available in token form and ready to integrate into DeFi protocols.

“We view the tokenization of our stock as a DeFi Lego block,” said CEO Joseph Onorati, a former Kraken executive who took over leadership earlier this year.

The initiative aligns with the company’s broader plan to make traditional equity more programmable and accessible within the Solana ecosystem.

However, the company hit a regulatory snag. On June 13, it withdrew a $1 billion SEC filing after the regulator flagged its ineligibility for a streamlined S-3 registration, citing a missing internal controls report in its latest 10-K filing.

The filing was intended to raise funds to purchase and stake Solana (SOL), an effort to mirror MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin treasury strategy.

While that plan is now in limbo, DeFi Dev Corp previously raised $42 million in April via convertible notes tied to Solana.

The company has also made it clear that SOL is now its primary reserve asset, with staking rewards central to its future yield model.

Despite setbacks, the company continues to build, bringing equity, staking, and community rewards closer together through Solana.

The post DeFi Dev Corp Launches Dogwifhat Validator: Staking Rewards Split with Community – Here’s How appeared first on Cryptonews.