[PRESS RELEASE – Wayzata, United States / Minnesota, July 28th, 2025]

Mill City Ventures III, Ltd. Announces $450,000,000 Private Placement to Initiate Sui Treasury Strategy

Upon the closing of the Private Placement, Mill City will adopt a Sui Treasury Strategy

Mill City intends to continue its short-term non-bank lending and specialty finance business

Marius Barnett and Stephen Mackintosh, Co-founders of Karatage, will become Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company and Chief Investment Officer of the Company, respectively, effective upon the closing of the Private Placement

Industry-First Relationship with Sui Foundation Provides Institutional-Grade Gateway for Exposure to Only Blockchain Built for Mass Adoption  

Mill City Ventures III, Ltd. (“Mill City” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ:MCVT), a non-bank lender and specialty finance company, today announced that it has entered into securities purchase agreements (the “Securities Purchase Agreements”) for a private investment in public equity for the purchase and sale of 83,025,830 shares of common stock (or common stock equivalents in lieu thereof) at a price of $5.42 per share for expected aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $ 450,000,000, before deducting placement agent fees and other offering expenses (the “Private Placement”, or the “Offering”).

Karatage Opportunities (“Karatage”), the London-based proprietary hedge fund specializing in digital assets and emerging technology investments, founded by Marius Barnett and Stephen Mackintosh, acted as the lead investor, with an equivalent investment from the Sui Foundation, an independent organization dedicated to the advancement and adoption of the Sui network. As a significant early investor in the Sui ecosystem, Karatage has established itself as a strategic partner to Mysten Labs, the original contributors to Sui, with deep operational experience across the Sui network.

The Offering included participation by prominent firms and infrastructure providers Big Brain Holdings, Galaxy Digital Inc (Nasdaq: GLXY) and Dr Jack Kong – NLABS Fund as well as investment from Pantera Capital , M2, Electric Capital, GSR, Selini, Protagonist, ParaFi Capital, Borderless, dao5, Arrington Capital, Comma3 Ventures,  FalconX, Paper Ventures and Maven 11 amongst others. Galaxy Asset Management will serve as the Asset Manager.

The closing of the Offering is expected to occur on or about July 31, 2025, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The Company intends to use approximately 98% of the net proceeds from the Private Placement to acquire the native cryptocurrency of the Sui blockchain commonly referred to as “SUI”, and approximately 2% of the net proceeds from the Private Placement to fund the Company’s short-term lending business. SUI will serve as the Company’s primary treasury reserve asset.

A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners is acting as the sole placement agent in connection with the offering.

Upon closing of the Offering, the Company intends to appoint two new members to the Company’s board of directors (the “Board”). The new Board members provide the strong and experienced leadership the Company needs as the Company pivots to a SUI treasury strategy:

Marius Barnett (Co-Founder of Karatage) will serve as the Chairman of the Board. A veteran operator and investor in digital assets, Mr. Barnett has a track record in building businesses across real estate, infrastructure and energy.

Dana Wagner will serve as an independent Board Director. As a current board member at Coinbase Custody Trust Company and former general counsel at Square, Mr. Wagner has served in senior-level legal roles for category-defining firms at the cutting edge of financial technology.

Stephen Mackintosh (Co-Founder and General Partner at Karatage) will serve as the Company’s Chief Investment Officer. With previous experience in artificial intelligence and deep tech, Mr. Mackintosh brings extensive experience across the Sui ecosystem as he manages the SUI treasury strategy for the Company.

“We’re launching at a pivotal moment when both institutional crypto and AI are reaching critical mass — creating significant opportunities across blockchain infrastructure,” said Stephen Mackintosh, the proposed Chief Investment Officer of Mill City and General Partner at Karatage. “We believe that Sui is well positioned for mass adoption with the speed and efficiency institutions require for crypto at scale, plus the technical architecture capable of supporting AI workloads while maintaining security and decentralization.”

“Sui was built to provide the scalability, speed, and security needed to support the next generation of decentralized applications and real-world crypto use-cases for consumers and institutions alike — from stablecoins to artificial intelligence to gaming and broader finance,” added Christian Thompson, Managing Director at the Sui Foundation.

Mill City intends to acquire SUI tokens on the open market, as well as via institutional-grade deal flow typically reserved for crypto funds and a negotiated purchase and sale agreement with Sui Foundation — a treasury strategy now accessible through a publicly traded structure with daily liquidity. As the sole SUI treasury with support from the Sui Foundation, Mill City and the Sui Foundation team will share information about the technology and ecosystem growth, establishing it as one of the only foundation-supported crypto treasury strategies.

“The future belongs to crypto, AI, and stablecoins — and they all need infrastructure that can handle real scale. That’s Sui,” said Adeniyi Abiodun, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Mysten Labs. “We believe that everything has been leading up to the right time to make Sui’s founding vision a reality — and in our view, the moment is now.”

The Offering is being made in reliance on an exemption from the registration requirement under Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act“), and/or Regulation D promulgated thereunder, and applicable state securities laws. Accordingly, the securities offered in the Private Placement may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an effective registration statement or an applicable exemption from the registration requirement of the Securities Act and such applicable state securities laws. Pursuant to the terms of the Securities Purchase Agreement, the Company will file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) registering the resale of the shares of common stock sold in the Private Placement.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction.

Advisors

• Sullivan & Worcester LLP is acting as legal advisor to A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners.
• Loeb & Loeb LLP is acting as legal advisor to Mill City.
• Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is acting as legal advisor to Karatage.
• O’Melveny & Myers LLP is acting as legal advisor to Sui Foundation.

About Mill City Ventures III, Ltd.

Founded in 2007, Mill City Ventures III, Ltd., is a specialty finance company focused on short-term lending and structured finance solutions. The company provides capital to businesses through secured loan agreements, offering investors attractive returns with a focus on security and risk mitigation. More information about the company can be obtained at www.sec.gov or www.millcityventures3.com.

Upon closing of the Private Placement, the Company expects to adopt a SUI treasury strategy.

About Karatage Opportunities

Karatage is a London-based proprietary hedge fund specializing in emerging technology investments across digital assets, artificial intelligence, and gaming. Founded by Marius Barnett and Stephen Mackintosh, Karatage focuses on identifying and backing high-growth projects building next-generation technology with mass-market appeal. As a significant early investor in the Sui ecosystem, the Karatage team brings deep operational experience across the blockchain ecosystem. For more information about Karatage, please visit karatage.io.

Upon the closing of the Private Placement, Marius Barnett and Stephen Mackintosh, Co-founders of Karatage, are expected to become Chairman of the Board and Chief Investment Officer of the Company, respectively.

Forward-Looking Statement

Statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects, as well as any other statements regarding matters that are not historical facts, may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and these forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the anticipated closing of the Offering, the anticipated receipt of proceeds from the Offering, the Company’s anticipated use of the proceeds from the Offering, opportunities that the Offering will create, Sui’s capabilities as a blockchain and the opportunities Sui creates, the belief that the new Board members will provide strong and experienced leadership to the Company, the execution of the Company’s treasury strategy, the anticipated filing of a registration statement and the Company’s ability to cause it to be effective and maintain its effectiveness, and other statements that are not historical facts, including statements which may be accompanied by the words “intends,” “may,” “will,” “plans,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “projects,” “predicts,” “estimates,” “aims,” “believes,” “hopes,” “potential” or similar words. Actual results could differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements due to certain factors, including without limitation, the Company’s satisfaction of closing conditions for the offering, fluctuations in the market price of SUI and any associated impairment charges that the Company may incur as a result of a decrease in the market price of SUI below the value at which the Company’s SUI are carried on its balance sheet, changes in the accounting treatment relating to the Company’s SUI holdings, the Company’s ability to achieve profitable operations, government regulation of cryptocurrencies and online betting, changes in securities laws or regulations, customer acceptance of new products and services including our SUI treasury strategy, the risk that SUI is classified as a security under current or future regulatory frameworks and the risk that the Company is deemed an investment company as a result of its ownership of SUI, the demand for its products and its customers’ economic condition, the impact of competitive products and pricing, the lengthy sales cycle, proprietary rights of the Company, changes in applicable laws or regulations, and its competitors, general economic conditions and other risk factors detailed in the Company’s annual report and other filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and the Company does not undertake any responsibility to update the forward-looking statements in this press release.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who ventured into crypto during his presidential campaign last year, earned over $58 million from crypto ventures in 2024.

Trump’s mandatory 2025 financial disclosure report filed on Friday detailed his earnings from all businesses between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2024. In the filing, Trump reported employment-related assets worth a minimum of $1.4 billion and revenue of at least $622 million, according to the New York Times.

Trump’s earnings from crypto before his second term started

According to Trump’s mandatory 2025 financial disclosure report filed on Friday, his stake in World Liberty Financial (WLF) alone earned him $57.4 million in 2024. The filing indicates that the earnings came from token sales, meaning Trump must have sold part of his holdings of WLF tokens.

The investment in WLF, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform controlled by Trump and his sons, therefore, turned out to be the family’s most lucrative investment in 2024. The filing also shows that Trump holds 15.75 million WLF governance tokens, which give him voting rights.

Trump also earned over $1 million from NFT INT, LLC, which licensed his non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Additionally, he earned $100,000 in royalties from NFT INT and over $216,000 in NFT licensing fees from Designers Manager, according to the financial disclosure.

In a statement on Friday, Eric Trump, the president’s son who runs the Trump Organization, said:

“I have never been more proud of our company — our portfolio is operating flawlessly, and this has been the strongest year in the remarkable history of the Trump Organization.”

Trump’s crypto fortune is slated to grow

Trump’s earnings from crypto are expected to be significantly greater this year in light of the crypto ventures he launched in the days before and since his inauguration. A June 5 Forbes report estimated that Trump has earned $1 billion from crypto ventures since launching his NFTs in 2022.

The President launched the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin days prior to taking office for his second term. Two Trump-owned entities control 80% of the token’s supply and share trading fees with partners.

The memecoin has generated around $350 million in fees this year, according to crypto analytics firm Chainalysis, but the token’s price has remained slumped after it reached a peak two days before Trump’s inauguration.

This means that even as the majority of small investors have lost money on the token, Trump and his family have earned millions. According to Forbes, if Trump took 90% of the fee earnings he’s supposed to share with his partners, similar to how Trump Media and Technology Group is structured, Trump could be sitting with $315 million.

Moreover, Trump’s financial disclosure does not include the funds raised by WLF in 2025, which will significantly impact his earnings this year. WLF’s first token sale took place in October 2024, when it raised around $300 million. On Jan. 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration, WLF announced its second round of fundraising. The token sales were completed by March, with $250 million raised.

According to Forbes’ calculations, Trump earned about $390 million from WLF’s token sales, netting $246 million after taxes. This week, the first USD1, a stablecoin launched by WLF, was also minted after the company airdropped $47 worth of USD1 to early backers last week.

Mentioned in this article

OpenAI announced on May 21 that it will acquire Jony Ive’s artificial intelligence hardware startup io in an all-equity transaction valued at approximately $6.4 billion, according to a report by CNBC.

The acquisition, OpenAI’s largest to date, marks a decisive step into hardware for the company best known for its generative AI models. The deal incorporates io directly into OpenAI.

Meanwhile, Ive, a former Apple design chief, will retain independence for his design firm, LoveFrom.

Ive is credited with designing the iPhone, iPad, and other key Apple products. He will assume design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI and io. 

Integration into AI and product teams

In a joint statement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive said the io team will relocate to San Francisco to work closely with OpenAI’s research and product teams.

The io startup, founded a year ago by Ive and former Apple colleagues Scott Cannon, Tang Tan, and Evans Hankey, was previously operated as part of LoveFrom.

OpenAI currently owns a 23% stake in io, contributing $1.4 billion to the deal’s valuation. The remaining $5 billion will be transferred in equity. 

The transaction will bring io’s device-focused team in-house, adding industrial design capacity to OpenAI’s portfolio. In a statement shared on X, Altman described Ive as “the greatest designer in the world.”

The deal comes weeks after OpenAI agreed to acquire Windsurf, an AI coding assistant, for $3 billion.

Hardware investments

Alongside its in-house efforts, OpenAI has invested in Physical Intelligence, a San Francisco-based robotics startup that raised $400 million in 2024 at a valuation of $2.4 billion.

That round included participation from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Physical Intelligence is building general-purpose AI to operate in physical environments, suggesting OpenAI’s broader intent to pair software with tactile systems.

The acquisition of io reinforces that direction. While OpenAI did not disclose specific products, the blog post referenced devices that “inspire, empower, and enable,” and emphasized IO’s mission to translate AI capabilities into consumer-oriented form factors.

OpenAI’s purchase of io highlights its strategy to build out physical interfaces for its models, as the competitive field in generative AI continues to widen with entries from Google, Anthropic, and xAI.

Mentioned in this article

This Friday, Sora Ventures will enter the public markets through a strategic partnership with Top Win International Limited (NASDAQ: TOPW), a Hong Kong-based luxury watch distributor transitioning into the digital assets sector.

Shares are up 25% in pre-market following the announcement.

Rather than launching an independent IPO, Sora will embed itself into TopWin’s publicly traded structure.

Founder Jason Fang will assume the role of Co-CEO alongside Tony Ngai as part of the firm’s broader rebrand to “AsiaStrategy.”

The move follows TopWin’s decision to expand into blockchain and Web3, adopt a Bitcoin-based treasury strategy, and reposition its business model to align with Asia’s accelerating interest in digital assets.

TopWin intends to leverage Sora’s domain expertise, particularly its experience in institutional Bitcoin integration, to lead investment and treasury initiatives across emerging capital markets in the region.

As part of the transition, TopWin has announced plans to incorporate Sora Ventures’ approach to capital deployment, which includes managing a fund dedicated to Bitcoin treasury allocations in public companies across Asia.

Sora Ventures’ rich crypto history

Established in 2018, Sora Ventures has built a reputation for early-stage investments in blockchain verticals such as DeFi, NFTs, and GameFi, and has more recently concentrated on decentralized science and the Bitcoin ecosystem.

It was an early partner of Metaplanet (TYO:3350), helping position the company as Japan’s first public Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) analog. In early 2025, Sora expanded that strategy by initiating a similar model in Hong Kong.

Through a collaboration with UTXO Management, it gained controlling ownership in HK Asia Holdings Ltd (HKG: 1723), setting the stage for further institutional Bitcoin integration across the region.

Fang brings experience from multiple market cycles and a disciplined capital deployment track record.

AsiaStrategy Bitcoin treasury model

Under his leadership, Sora Ventures has committed to investing $150 million in Asian public companies adopting Bitcoin treasury models. By year-end, it plans to back at least ten firms.

TopWin will maintain its core luxury watch distribution business while leveraging Sora Ventures’ Web3 expertise to diversify its portfolio.

The move positions the company to operate across both physical and digital asset classes, aligning with Asia’s accelerating push into tokenized finance.

Pending approval, TopWin’s name change to AsiaStrategy aims to reflect its dual-track operations in legacy and blockchain-based sectors.

The initiative signals increasing institutional coordination around Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset, particularly in high-growth regions with receptive regulatory climates.

By integrating a Bitcoin treasury and entering public markets through Sora Ventures, the company aims to establish a durable presence in Asia’s evolving capital market.

Disclaimer: Sora Ventures is an investor in CryptoSlate.

Mentioned in this article

Top House Democrats have launched an inquiry into President Donald Trump’s crypto ventures, citing concerns over potentially illegal fundraising, foreign influence, and abuse of political power.

In line with this, they have requested all suspicious activity reports (SARs) connected to Trump’s fundraising efforts.

The Allegations

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Democrats Gerald Connolly, Joseph Morelle, and Jamie Raskin, senior members from three House committees, said:

“We write regarding the potential misuse of certain politically oriented fundraising ventures for fraudulent, corrupt, or other illegal purposes.”

The inquiry targets the Republican fundraising platform WinRed, multiple political action committees, including Elon Musk’s America PAC, the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial (WLF), and meme coins linked to the president and first lady.

The lawmakers were specifically interested in World Liberty’s WLFI token sale. After failing to meet initial fundraising targets, WLF received a $75 million purchase from Justin Sun. The Tron founder has been under SEC scrutiny since 2023 but recently secured a pause in the case as discussions with regulators continued, raising suspicions of bribery.

The House Democrats also mentioned the TRUMP and MELANIA meme coins. According to them, entities affiliated with the president control 80% of the former’s supply and have earned over $100 million in trading fees.

Foreigners, some allegedly Chinese nationals, are also said to have made substantial profits selling the meme token early, while later investors lost more than $2 billion. These patterns have fueled accusations of possible insider trading and pump-and-dump activity.

The letter also addresses concerns about national security and foreign influence, given that coin buyers remain anonymous and most WLF tokens were sold to foreign investors. Connolly and company argued that this left room for non-natives to possibly gain influence over U.S. policy.

In March 2025, WLF announced plans to launch a stablecoin called USD1. Later, a fund backed by Abu Dhabi revealed it would use the stablecoin for a $2 billion investment in the Binance crypto exchange, which was previously convicted of violating U.S. anti-money-laundering laws.

The letter highlights that the timing and nature of this deal show the dangers of Trump’s conflicts of interest and the ethics of mixing business and presidential power.

Trump Faces Ongoing Scrutiny

The three legislators are demanding that all relevant SARs from January 1, 2023, to the present be made available to their committees by May 30. Their request comes amid increased pressure from Democrats seeking to regulate political involvement in crypto.

Last week, Rep. Ritchie Torres introduced a bill to ban sitting presidents and members of Congress from profiting off meme coins and stablecoins. In April, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff also called for an ethics probe after a Trump-hosted gala dinner promised exclusive invitations for top holders of his Solana-based meme coin.

Separately, Congress voted down the GENIUS Act, a bill that aims to regulate stablecoins, citing unresolved conflicts linked to Trump’s crypto dealings.