Bastion Trading

Bastion Trading was founded in 2014 by a group of traders and technologists, initially focusing on trading markets in Greater China and North Asia before expanding into multiple asset classes globally, including stocks, ETFs, futures and options. The firm runs mid-to-high-frequency systematic trading strategies aimed mainly at providing liquidity and removing market inefficiencies, operates primarily on founder and team capital, and has built its own quantitative models and execution and risk management systems.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

On August 25, 2025, Bastion Trading signed a securities purchase agreement with Sharps Technology (later renamed SkyAI) to take part in its private placement to build a treasury of the Solana token SOL: it bought 1.15 million shares of common stock at $6.50 per share and received pre-funded warrants exercisable for 4,234,615 shares and stapled warrants exercisable for 5,384,615 shares at $9.75. The private placement closed on August 28, raising more than $400 million, with Bastion Trading listed among the subscribers.⁠[2][2][2][3][3]

In January 2026 Bastion Trading, together with its parent Bastion Holdings and indirect control person Wei Zhu, filed Schedule 13G reports disclosing a 9.9% stake in Sharps Technology as of January 24 (subject to a 9.99% exercise cap on its warrants) and a 5.0% stake as of January 28 in another listed company, AVAX One Technology; an amended filing in May reported 4.4% of AVAX One. An amended filing in August showed Bastion Trading directly holding 1,345,417 SkyAI shares and its affiliate Lucio Holding holding 2,940,075 shares.⁠[4][4][4][4][5][5][6][7][7]

On September 3, 2026, Bastion Trading and the other reporting persons filed a Schedule 13D on SkyAI, becoming activist shareholders: Bastion Trading directly held about 3.2% and Lucio Holding about 6.8%, with Wei Zhu, as a director of both, deemed to beneficially own about 9.99% in total. The reporting persons said they were deeply concerned about SkyAI’s underperformance, corporate governance, conflicts of interest and related-party transactions, pointing to the high fees SkyAI paid to Sol Edge and Sol Markets, controlled by the brother of chief investment officer Alice Zhang, and criticizing its unilateral bylaw changes, its adoption of a “poison pill” and its giving only 32 days’ notice of the annual meeting; they said they intended to vote “withhold” on all five incumbent directors.⁠[2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2]

At SkyAI’s annual meeting on September 18, 2026, all five incumbent director nominees received more withheld votes than votes in favor but were still elected under plurality voting, and the 2026 Equity Incentive Plan failed. On September 30 Bastion Trading issued a public letter saying that withheld votes outnumbered votes in favor by nearly 3 to 1 for some directors and that about 82% of votes were cast against the equity plan, and urging the board to respect shareholders’ views, engage with it promptly and substantially reconstitute the board with new independent directors.⁠[8][8][9][9][9]

Citing SkyAI’s filings, the letter also pointed out that SkyAI paid Sol Edge $5 million in consulting fees in the first half of 2026, about 92% of its $5.46 million in staking revenue over the period, while other SolanaSolanaSolana is a proof-of-stake (PoS) public blockchain designed for high throughput and low latency, with SOL as its native token; it was developed by Solana Labs and launched Mainnet Beta in March 2020. It is known for design choices such as its Proof of History clock and parallel execution, suffered several network-wide outages in its early years, and became one of the crypto industry’s focal points in events including the FTX collapse, U.S. SEC lawsuits, and the listing of Solana ETFs.Open the full entry treasury companies disclosed much lower asset management fees; it also criticized executive pay as excessive and noted that proxy adviser ISS had recommended withholding votes from all five incumbent directors.⁠[9][9][9][9]

On October 7, 2026, Bastion Trading bought 44,000 SkyAI shares at a weighted average price of about $1.78, raising its direct holding to 1,429,417 shares; the reporting persons, as a Section 13(d) group, together beneficially owned more than 10% of SkyAI and filed Forms 3 and 4 on October 9.⁠[10][11]

On October 11, 2026, SkyAI announced plans to buy back up to 95% of its shares and warrants for $3.00 per share in cash. On October 14 Bastion Trading expressed serious concerns: it argued that SkyAI had disposed of about 70% of its SOL treasury in less than a month but mentioned this only at the end of the offer announcement and the subsequent 8-K; it questioned the legitimacy of an incumbent board that had received large withhold votes at the annual meeting continuing to make major decisions; and it said its preliminary discussions with management after September 30 had been unproductive.⁠[12][12][12][12][12]

Bastion Trading demanded that before launching the offer SkyAI disclose the dates, quantities, average realized prices, proceeds and approval process for each SOL disposal and conduct an independent review with public findings; refresh the board with shareholder-identified independent directors and set up an independent special committee to oversee the offer; raise the offer price from $3.00 to at least $3.50 (it estimated net asset value at about $3.30 per share, assuming a SOL price of $110); exclude the strategic advisor warrants from the offer and bar incumbent directors, executives and the strategic advisor from tendering; and remove the conditions requiring SOL to stay above $100 and at least 50% of each class to be tendered. It said it did not intend to participate in the offer unless its concerns were satisfactorily addressed, encouraged other shareholders not to participate for now, and was prepared to pursue all available legal remedies if necessary.⁠[12][12][12][12][12][12][12][12][12][12][12]

Bastion Trading Limited is a private company limited by shares incorporated in the British Virgin Islands whose principal business is proprietary trading and investment; it is wholly owned by Bastion Holdings, a Cayman Islands company. As of September 2026, Ningxiang Zhang was chief executive officer and a director, Wei Zhu was chief financial officer, chief operating officer and a director, and Masahide Hoshi was advisory chairman. The firm says ownership and management rest in the hands of its employees, whose team members have come from China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and other countries and regions and have worked at investment banks such as JP Morgan, UBSUBSUBS is a global financial group headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, operating wealth management, Swiss personal and corporate banking, asset management and investment banking. Its modern bank emerged from a 1998 merger, its holding company was incorporated in 2014, and it acquired Credit Suisse in 2023.Open the full entry, Citigroup and Morgan StanleyMorgan StanleyMorgan Stanley is an American global financial services firm that grew from an investment banking partnership into a publicly traded financial group spanning investment banking, securities trading, wealth management, and investment management.Open the full entry and at trading firms such as Optiver.⁠[2][2][2][2][13][2][13][14][1][1]

Bastion Trading: Official website: https://bastiontrading.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[15][16]

X: Public account: https://x.com/BastionTrading (opens in a new window)⁠[15]