SOL Strategies Acquires Darklake Labs to Integrate Zero-Knowledge Privacy Technology on Solana

SOL Strategies Pivots to Active Development with Darklake Acquisition

SOL Strategies Inc. (CSE: HODL, NASDAQ: STKE) announced a definitive agreement on April 7, 2026, to acquire the assets of Darklake Labs for $1.2 million. The acquisition of the Solana-native zero-knowledge startup marks a significant shift for the Toronto-based firm. By absorbing these assets, the company moves beyond its role as a strategic investor to become an active technology developer within the Solana economy. The purchase price is comprised of $200,000 in cash and $1 million in common shares of the company. These consideration shares are subject to a statutory four-month lock-up period to align the new team's incentives with long-term shareholder value. This valuation secures a highly specialized engineering team and a suite of proprietary intellectual property early in its lifecycle.

Introducing Zyga Technology

At the center of the deal is Zyga, a dynamic zero-knowledge proof system designed specifically for the Solana blockchain. Zyga enables private transaction execution by plugging directly into the network's execution pipeline. This architecture helps eliminate front-running and sandwich attacks, which are common forms of Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) exploits that plague current DeFi users. Darklake Labs previously gained ecosystem recognition by placing second in the DeFi track of the Solana Radar Global Hackathon. The project was also a participant in the prestigious Colosseum Accelerator program. The team currently maintains active academic research partnerships with two Brazilian universities and has a patent application in process for its unique ZK architecture.

Elite Engineering Talent Joins the Ranks

The core leadership of Darklake will join SOL Strategies to lead a newly expanded research and engineering division. Vitor Py Braga, the technical founder with previous experience at Meta and IBM, will oversee technical development. Amber Hales joins with nearly a decade of compliance and operations experience from senior roles at Coinbase and Coincover. Tiago Alves, a university professor and specialist in zero-knowledge research, will spearhead the R&D function within the company. This influx of talent significantly strengthens the engineering capacity of SOL Strategies as it builds for the next generation of decentralized finance. The firm intends to leverage this expertise to establish an institution-ready execution layer on the Solana blockchain.

Strategic Vision for the Solana Economy

"Privacy is a core functionality needed to bring global finance on-chain," said Michael Hubbard, CEO of SOL Strategies. He noted that owning this technology continues the mission to support the Solana ecosystem through active development. Hubbard believes the Darklake team is the right fit at the right time to help execute the firm's growing infrastructure roadmap. SOL Strategies remains a major stakeholder in the network, holding over 533,000 SOL tokens as of early 2026. The transition to direct technology development complements their existing validator operations and strategic investments. Investors can find more information about the company's evolving operations at www.solstrategies.io.