The birth of DeFi version of MicroStrategy? A $2 million capital gamble and a boardroom battle.

Will Leshner turn LQR House into the MicroStrategy of the DeFi space?

Written by: Shenchao TechFlow

The publicly listed liquor retailer LQR House, located in Miami Beach, Florida, has recently been troubled.

On July 14, 2025, a document from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed that Compound founder Robert Leshner purchased approximately 600,000 shares of Nasdaq-listed company LQR House Inc. (LQR) with personal funds, holding a stake of up to 56.9%, making him the largest shareholder.

According to the submitted 13D form, Leshner's total investment in this round is approximately $2.03 million, with some shares purchased through Interactive Brokers at $3.77 per share.

This news caused LQR House's stock price to rise by 45% during Monday's trading, reaching $10 before the market closed on Wednesday, doubling its purchase price.

However, Leshner's acquisition was not smooth sailing; it soon turned into a capital tug-of-war over control, sparking a confrontation with the board.

Control and Counter-Control Battle

"I purchased a controlling stake in $YHC, a low-market-cap, somewhat infamous liquor company. My plan is to change the board and help the company explore new strategies." On July 14, Leshner revealed his "intent to change" on the day of the SEC announcement and warned retail investors: "I have not conducted extensive due diligence, and there are signs that the company is up to no good. But please be especially cautious with any low market cap company; I could lose all my investment, and so could you."

According to the content of the SEC document, Leshner plans to propose the removal of all current board members and nominate a new board team through written consent or by convening a special shareholders' meeting, in accordance with the company's articles of association and Nevada state law.

Leshner also emphasized that no specific agreements have been reached with other shareholders or third parties at this time, but he does not rule out further communication and collaboration with relevant parties in the future.

However, Leshner's plan seems to have encountered a bit of a setback.

On July 14, LQR House submitted a supplement to its prospectus to the SEC. According to the document, LQR House stated that the number of shares to be sold and offered through the sales agent would be increased to $46 million, excluding shares valued at $2,700 sold under the ATM agreement prior to the date of the supplemental document.

Typically, an ATM (At-the-Market) issuance is a means for listed companies to raise flexible financing, but at the current sensitive moment, it clearly carries a deeper significance.

Leshner stated after reviewing the supplementary materials: "I disagree with LQR House's approach to issuing ATMs (selling stock), I believe this is ineffective, and I am consulting with lawyers." The next day, on July 15, shareholders of LQR House, Kingbird Ventures LLC, filed a lawsuit in Florida court, accusing CEO Sean Dollinger and board members of breaching fiduciary duty, asset misappropriation, and violating corporate bylaws; requesting the court to freeze certain share changes and suspend board powers to prevent "control hijacking."

If the court issues a temporary restraining order (TRO) or injunction, Leshner's plan to hold a special shareholders' meeting to remove the current directors may be temporarily shelved.

In addition, according to sources, the company may attempt to counter with a "Poison Pill" strategy. The so-called "Poison Pill" refers to the automatic issuance of new shares to other shareholders (excluding the acquirer) at a significant discount when a certain shareholder's holding reaches or exceeds a preset "trigger line," thereby diluting the acquirer's shareholding percentage, increasing the cost of acquisition, and even forcing them to abandon it.

But Leshner's supporters are not to be outdone.

On July 16, 2025, Makesy Capital announced the acquisition of 0.1% of LQR House's shares and pledged to support Leshner's reforms. At the same time, Makesy Capital also launched an online campaign against LQR House CEO Sean Dollinger, stating that this would serve as a warning to publicly traded company CEOs who treat the public markets and retail investors as their private piggy banks.

As of the time of publication, this battle of control and counter-control is still intensively ongoing, with both sides carefully probing, wary of any hasty decision that could potentially have negative effects.

Why is it LQR House?

LQR House is a Nasdaq small-cap company that once had a market capitalization of less than $3 million. Even after experiencing a recent surge, its current market cap is only around $11 million.

At first glance, this looks like a speculative game for a micro-cap concept stock, but Robert Leshner's entry presents another possibility.

As the founder of Compound, Leshner has been a pioneer of on-chain finance. He led Compound to ignite the DeFi lending wave and has actively explored the combination of DAOs and RWAs over the past two years. As crypto capital continuously seeks deep integration with traditional markets and crypto stocks rise, this tech-savvy DeFi pioneer has chosen to bet on LQR House. There may be three reasons:

First, the identity of the listed company. LQR House has the qualification to be listed on NASDAQ, and the compliance channels have already been opened. For crypto players looking to enter the traditional capital market, this kind of "lightweight" listed company has unique strategic value. By bypassing the high costs required for an IPO or SPAC and leveraging existing capital market channels, it is easier to become a springboard for funding, trust, and influence.

Secondly, the holding threshold is low, and the equity structure is loose. LQR House has a dispersed equity structure and a small circulating market, making it easy for external capital to quickly gain control. This is highly attractive for investors looking to build a cross-border capital platform. Leshner acquired a 56.9% controlling stake for $2.03 million, which is far more cost-effective than most capital operation cases.

Finally, the company itself has initially engaged in the cryptocurrency business. According to CoinDesk, LQR House had announced an injection of 1 million dollars worth of Bitcoin into the treasury and activated cryptocurrency payment services. This means it has taken a step towards bridging digital assets with traditional retail, laying the foundation for extending into the cryptocurrency capital ecosystem.

Is the Compound version of MicroStrategy coming?

Since MicroStrategy incorporated Bitcoin into its balance sheet and SBET became the new darling of the stock market, a trend of "public companies holding cryptocurrencies" has swept through the global capital markets.

The most concerning question in the market is: Will Leshner turn LQR House into the MicroStrategy of the DeFi field? Will he incorporate $COMP and even crypto lending business into LQR House to form a new asset reserve and capital operation model?

Of course, there is one more thing that may be overlooked by everyone. Leshner, besides being the founder of Compound, holds the latest title of founder of Superstate.

Superstate, a company founded in 2023, is targeting the on-chain fund and compliant tokenized asset sector.

Unlike Compound, which is aimed at pure DeFi users, Superstate is dedicated to providing traditional asset funds based on blockchain for institutional investors. The first product is a tokenized version of the "Short-term U.S. Treasury Fund," directly targeting the traditional financial market.

The key words that Superstate has always emphasized are: on-chain compliance, asset tokenization, and institutional friendliness. Its ambition is to bridge the connection between traditional finance and on-chain assets.

This may be Leshner's potential layout direction for LQR House.

LQR House, as a ready-made Nasdaq listed platform, possesses the "ticket" to the traditional financial market, providing a public capital market showcase for Superstate's compliant products, RWA business, or on-chain funds.

The combination of the two means the potential creation of a "listing platform under Superstate", using the public market to attract traffic for on-chain products, and providing a legal and compliant secondary market channel for fundraising for Superstate's funds.

In addition, LQR House has previously ventured into cryptocurrency payments and digital asset layouts, which can also serve as a "testing ground" or ecological application landing channel for Superstate products.

This is slightly different from MicroStrategy writing Bitcoin into its reports and SharpLink Gaming reserving Ethereum. What Leshner may want to do is to embed on-chain funds and tokenized assets into the capital operations of listed companies.

Truly bring "on-chain capital" into the traditional financial framework, creating a compliant DeFi-TradFi linkage model.

This will be a deeper experiment.

It's not just a story about holding coins, but a story about capital.