Decentralized Finance pioneer Leshner acquisition LQR House triggers capital battle

On July 14, 2025, a captivating capital battle unfolded at Nasdaq-listed company LQR House Inc. (LQR). Compound founder Robert Leshner purchased nearly 600,000 shares of LQR House for approximately $2.03 million, acquiring a 56.9% stake and becoming the largest shareholder of the company. This move not only propelled LQR House's stock price to surge by 45% in a short period but also triggered a series of intense battles for control.

Leshner publicly announced plans to change the board of directors and explore new strategic directions. However, this plan soon encountered resistance. The board of LQR House quickly took countermeasures, including issuing additional shares and possibly initiating a "poison pill" strategy. Meanwhile, company shareholder Kingbird Ventures LLC filed a lawsuit against CEO Sean Dollinger and board members, accusing them of abuse of power.

Despite facing numerous obstacles, Leshner has still gained some support. Investment firm Makesy Capital announced the acquisition of 0.1% of LQR House's shares and publicly supported Leshner's reform plan. This power struggle is currently ongoing, with both sides carefully devising strategies.

There are several possible reasons why Leshner chose LQR House as a starting point: first, as a Nasdaq-listed company, LQR House has a compliant channel; second, the company's equity is dispersed, with a low threshold for controlling stakes; finally, LQR House has already begun to venture into the cryptocurrency business, laying a foundation for future development.

The industry is widely concerned whether Leshner will turn LQR House into a DeFi version of MicroStrategy. However, more noteworthy is the Superstate company that Leshner recently founded. Superstate focuses on on-chain funds and compliant tokenized assets, aiming to provide traditional asset fund services based on blockchain for institutional investors.

LQR House could become a showcase platform for Superstate products, attracting traffic for on-chain products and providing a compliant secondary market channel for fundraising of Superstate's fund. This layout differs from a simple Bitcoin reserve, embedding on-chain funds and tokenized assets into the capital operations of listed companies, creating a linkage sample between Decentralized Finance and traditional finance.

This move may create a new capital narrative, not just a holding strategy, but a deep-level experiment of integrating "on-chain capital" into the traditional financial framework. As the situation develops, the market will closely watch how Leshner utilizes the LQR House platform to promote the integration of crypto finance and traditional capital markets.