LQR House, a publicly listed liquor retailer located in Miami Beach, Florida, has recently been in turmoil.
On July 14, 2025, a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that Compound founder Robert Leshner had personally acquired approximately 600,000 shares of Nasdaq-listed LQR House Inc. (LQR), raising his ownership stake to 56.9%, making him the largest shareholder.
According to the submitted 13D form, Leshner's total investment amounted to about $2.03 million, with some shares purchased through Interactive Brokers at $3.77 per share.
This news caused LQR House's stock price to surge by 45% during Monday's trading, reaching $10 before the market closed on Wednesday, doubling from his purchase price.
However, Leshner's acquisition was not without challenges, quickly escalating into a capital battle over control, clashing with the board of directors.
The Battle for Control
"I have acquired a controlling stake in $YHC, a low market cap liquor company with a somewhat tarnished history. My plan is to replace the board and help the company explore new strategies." On July 14, Leshner expressed his "intent to change" in the SEC announcement and warned retail investors: "I have not conducted extensive due diligence, and there are signs that the company may be 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 SEC filing, Leshner plans to propose the removal of all current board members and nominate a new board team through written consent or a special shareholder meeting, in accordance with the company's bylaws and Nevada state law.
Leshner also emphasized that he has not yet reached any specific agreements with other shareholders or third parties but does not rule out further communication and collaboration with relevant parties in the future.
However, Leshner's plans seem to have encountered some obstacles.
On the same day, LQR House submitted a supplemental prospectus to the SEC, stating that it would increase the number of shares available for sale through sales agents to $46 million, excluding shares worth $2,700 sold under the ATM agreement prior to the date of the supplemental filing.
Typically, ATM offerings are a flexible financing method for public companies, but at this sensitive moment, it clearly carries deeper implications.
After reviewing the supplemental materials, Leshner stated: "I disagree with LQR House's approach to the ATM issuance (selling shares); I believe it is ineffective, and I am consulting with lawyers." The next day, July 15, LQR House's shareholder Kingbird Ventures LLC filed a lawsuit in Florida court, accusing CEO Sean Dollinger and board members of breaching fiduciary duties, misappropriation of assets, and violating corporate bylaws; requesting the court to freeze certain share changes and suspend board powers to prevent a "hostile takeover."
If the court issues a temporary restraining order (TRO) or injunction, Leshner's plans to convene a special shareholder meeting and remove current directors may be temporarily shelved.
Additionally, according to sources, the company may attempt to use a "poison pill" strategy in retaliation. The so-called "poison pill" refers to a mechanism where, once a shareholder's ownership reaches or exceeds a predetermined "trigger line," the company automatically issues new shares at a significant discount to other shareholders (excluding the acquirer), thereby diluting the acquirer's ownership stake, increasing acquisition costs, and even forcing them to abandon the takeover.
However, Leshner's supporters are also not backing down.
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 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 private piggy banks.
As of the time of publication, this battle for control is still ongoing, with both sides carefully probing each other, wary that any careless decision could have negative repercussions.
Why LQR House?
LQR House is a small-cap Nasdaq company, with a market value that once dipped below $3 million; even after a recent surge, its market value is only around $11 million.
At first glance, this seems like a speculative game in a micro-cap stock, but Robert Leshner's entry presents another possibility.
As the founder of Compound, Leshner has been a pioneer in on-chain finance. He led Compound to spark the DeFi lending trend and has actively explored the integration of DAOs and RWAs over the past two years. As crypto capital continuously seeks deep integration with traditional markets, and with a multitude of crypto stocks emerging, this tech-savvy DeFi pioneer has chosen to bet on LQR House. The reasons may be threefold:
First, the identity of a public company. LQR House has Nasdaq listing qualifications, and the compliance pathway is already established. For crypto players looking to enter traditional capital markets, such "lightweight" public companies hold unique strategic value. Bypassing the high costs associated with IPOs or SPACs, leveraging existing capital market channels makes it easier to become a springboard for capital, trust, and influence.
Second, low control thresholds and a loose equity structure. LQR House has a dispersed ownership structure and a small float, making it easier for external capital to quickly gain control. This is highly attractive for investors looking to build cross-border capital platforms. Leshner acquired a 56.9% controlling stake for $2.03 million, a far better cost-performance ratio than most capital operation cases.
Finally, the company itself has already begun to engage in crypto business. According to CoinDesk, LQR House announced a $1 million Bitcoin injection into its treasury and activated crypto payment services. This indicates that it has taken a step towards bridging digital assets and traditional retail, laying the groundwork for extending into the crypto capital ecosystem.
Is a Compound-style MicroStrategy on the Horizon?
Since MicroStrategy incorporated Bitcoin into its balance sheet and SBET became the new darling of the stock market, a wave of "public companies holding crypto" has swept through global capital markets.
The most pressing 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, creating a new asset reserve and capital operation model?
Of course, there is one thing that may be overlooked. In addition to being the founder of Compound, Leshner's latest title is founder of Superstate.
Superstate, a company founded in 2023, is targeting the on-chain fund and compliant tokenized asset space.
Unlike Compound, which focuses on pure DeFi users, Superstate aims to provide traditional asset funds based on blockchain for institutional investors, with its first product being a tokenized version of a "short-term U.S. Treasury fund," directly targeting the traditional financial market.
Superstate has consistently emphasized keywords such as: 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 strategic direction for LQR House.
As an existing Nasdaq-listed platform, LQR House holds the "ticket" to the traditional financial market, which can provide a public capital market showcase for Superstate's compliant products, RWA business, or on-chain funds.
The combination of the two could mean the creation of a "public platform under Superstate," using the public market to drive traffic to on-chain products and providing a legitimate and compliant secondary market channel for fundraising for Superstate's funds.
Additionally, LQR House's previous forays into crypto payments and digital asset layouts could serve as a "testing ground" or ecological application channel for Superstate's products.
This differs slightly from MicroStrategy writing Bitcoin into its reports or SharpLink Gaming reserving Ethereum; Leshner may be looking to embed on-chain funds and tokenized assets into the capital operations of a public company.
Truly bringing "on-chain capital" into the traditional financial framework, creating a compliant DeFi-TradFi linkage model.
This will be a deeper experiment.
Not just a story of holding crypto, but a story of capital.
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