The DeFi Godfather controls $2.03 million of U.S. stocks, and the management launches a counterattack.

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

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

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

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

However, Leshner's acquisition was not smooth sailing, and soon a capital tug-of-war unfolded around control, featuring confrontations with the board.

Control and Counter-Control War

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

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

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

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

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

Typically, an ATM (At-the-Market) offering is a means for publicly traded companies to raise capital flexibly, but at this sensitive moment, it clearly carries deeper significance.

Leshner stated after reviewing the supplementary materials: "I disagree with LQR House's approach to issuing ATMs (selling shares), I think it is ineffective, and I am consulting with a lawyer." 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 abuse of trust, asset misappropriation, and violation of corporate bylaws; requesting the court to freeze certain share changes and suspend board powers to prevent "hostile takeover."

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

In addition, according to sources, the company may attempt to counterattack using a "Poison Pill" strategy. The so-called "Poison Pill" refers to a situation where, once a shareholder's ownership reaches or exceeds a predetermined "trigger line," the company automatically issues new shares to other shareholders (excluding the acquirer) at a significantly discounted price, thereby diluting the acquirer's shareholding percentage, increasing acquisition costs, and even forcing them to abandon the acquisition.

But Leshner's supporters are also not to be outdone.

On July 16, 2025, Makesy Capital announced the acquisition of a 0.1% stake in LQR House 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 public company CEOs who treat the public market and investors as their private piggy banks.

As of the time of writing, the battle of control and counter-control is still intensively ongoing, with both sides cautiously testing each other, guarding against any careless decision that could potentially have negative effects.

Why LQR House?

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

At first glance, this seems like a speculative game for micro-cap concept stocks, but Robert Leshner's entry has presented another possibility.

As the founder of Compound, Leshner was a pioneer in on-chain finance. He led Compound to ignite the DeFi lending boom and has actively explored the combination of DAOs and RWAs over the past two years. As crypto capital continuously seeks deeper integration with traditional markets and crypto stocks emerge, this tech-born DeFi trailblazer has chosen to bet on LQR House. The reasons may be three:

First, the identity of the listed company. LQR House has the qualifications for listing on NASDAQ, and the compliance channel has been opened. For crypto players looking to enter the traditional capital market, these "lightweight" listed companies possess unique strategic value. By bypassing the high costs associated with IPOs or SPACs, it is easier to leverage existing capital market channels to become a springboard for funds, 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 circulation volume, making it easy for external capital to quickly gain control. This is very attractive for investors looking to build a cross-border capital platform. Leshner acquired 56.9% of the 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 cryptocurrency business. According to a report by CoinDesk, LQR House had announced a $1 million injection of Bitcoin into its treasury and activated cryptocurrency payment services. This means it has taken a step towards connecting digital assets with traditional retail, laying the foundation for extending into the crypto 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 cryptocurrency" 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 space? Will he incorporate $COMP or even crypto lending 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. In addition to being the founder of Compound, Leshner's latest title is the founder of Superstate.

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

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

The key phrases that Superstate has consistently emphasized are: on-chain compliance, asset tokenization, and institutional friendliness. Its ambition lies in bridging the gap 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, holds the "ticket" to traditional financial markets, providing a showcase for Superstate's compliant products, RWA business, or on-chain funds in the public capital market.

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

In addition, LQR House has previously been involved in crypto payments and digital asset deployment, which can also serve as a "testing ground" or ecological application landing channel for Superstate products.

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

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

This will be a deeper level of experiment.

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