Finance Firm Mill City Ventures to Buy $441M in SUI Tokens. Pivoting to Crypto Treasury Strategy

The non-bank lender will allocate nearly all of a $450 million private placement to Sui’s native token. Mill City Ventures III, a publicly traded specialty finance firm, is making a dramatic pivot into crypto with the announcement of a $450 million private placement that will largely fund a new treasury strategy centered on SUI, the native cryptocurrency of the Sui blockchain. Roughly 98% of the funds will be used to purchase SUI on the open market and through direct agreements with the Sui Foundation, according to a press release. The move will make SUI Mill City’s primary treasury asset. The remaining 2% will support the firm’s existing short-term lending operations. This marks one of the largest SUI allocations to date and ties Mill City’s future to the performance of a blockchain designed for high-throughput applications, including payments, gaming and AI infrastructure. Karatage Opportunities, a hedge fund focused on digital assets, led the funding round. Founders Marius Barnett and Stephen Mackintosh will take over key leadership roles at Mill City as board chairman and chief investment officer, respectively. The change effectively positions Mill City as a public vehicle for gaining institutional exposure to SUI—an unusual move in the publicly traded financial sector. According to the company, the arrangement includes a foundation-backed strategy with shared insight into the Sui ecosystem. With the deal expected to close by the end of July, Mill City will be among the first publicly listed U.S. firms to formally adopt a blockchain-native treasury approach on this scale. SUI is lower by 1.7% over the past 24 hours. UPDATE (July. 28, 16:30 UTC): Clarifies that Karatage acted as the lead investor. Ian Allison is a senior reporter at CoinDesk, focused on institutional and enterprise adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Prior to that, he covered fintech for the International Business Times in London and Newsweek online. He won the State Street Data and Innovation journalist of the year award in 2017, and was runner up the following year. He also earned CoinDesk an honourable mention in the 2020 SABEW Best in Business awards. His November 2022 FTX scoop, which brought down the exchange and its boss Sam Bankman-Fried, won a Polk award, Loeb award and New York Press Club award. Ian graduated from the University of Edinburgh. He holds ETH. “AI Boost” indicates a generative text tool, typically an AI chatbot, contributed to the article. In each and every case, the article was edited, fact-checked and published by a human. Read more about CoinDesk's AI Policy. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/07/28/finance-firm-mill-city-ventures-to-buy-usd441m-in-sui-tokens-pivoting-to-blockchain-treasury-strategy #crypto #bitcoin #ethereum #cryptocurrency #news #blockchain #litecoin #cryptonews #cryptonewstoday #cryptoworld #cryptonewstoday ***NOT FINANCIAL, LEGAL, OR TAX ADVICE! JUST OPINION! I AM NOT AN EXPERT! I DO NOT GUARANTEE A PARTICULAR OUTCOME I HAVE NO INSIDE KNOWLEDGE! YOU NEED TO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH AND MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS! THIS IS JUST ENTERTAINMENT! This information is what was found publicly on the internet. This information could’ve been doctored or misrepresented by the internet. All information is meant for public awareness and is public domain. This information is not intended to slander harm or defame any of the actors involved but to show what was said through their social media accounts. Please take this information and do your own research. bitcoin, blockchain, crypto, cryptocurrency, altcoin, investment, ethereum, bitcoin crash, xrp, cardano, ripple