STKE Buys Darklake Labs for $1.2M, Seals $18M Houdini Swap Deal
STKE acquired Darklake Labs for $1.2 million, including $200,000 cash and $1.0 million in locked common shares, adding Zyga’s Solana-native zero-knowledge execution and privacy infrastructure. STKE agreed to acquire Houdini Swap for $18 million—$8.25M cash, $5.75M note and $4M shares—adding $13M 2025 revenue and cross-chain swap infrastructure across 100+ networks.
1. Darklake Labs Acquisition
In April, STKE acquired Darklake Labs for $1.2 million—$200,000 in cash and $1.0 million in common shares locked for four months. The acquisition brings Zyga, a Solana-native zero-knowledge proof engine for private transaction execution and dynamic slippage protection, plus a team with backgrounds at Meta, IBM, Coinbase and Coincover and ecosystem validation from a Solana hackathon and accelerator.
2. Houdini Swap Agreement
In May, STKE signed a definitive agreement to acquire Houdini Swap for $18 million, comprising $8.25 million cash, a $5.75 million promissory note, $4 million in common shares and warrants, with closing expected end of month. Houdini is a non-custodial, privacy-enabled cross-chain swap aggregator spanning 100+ blockchains and 30+ exchanges, generating $13 million in 2025 revenue and processing $2.5 billion in cumulative volume.
3. Integration and Strategic Impact
Combining Zyga’s zero-knowledge privacy and slippage controls with Houdini’s routing infrastructure and API suite creates private swap execution, B2B API products and wallet-to-wallet transfers. This integration could boost transaction volume, fee capture and margins while driving users into STKE’s 3.8 million SOL staking ecosystem and diversifying revenue beyond validation services.