Three major encryption VCs lead a "superstar" lineup to invest $1.65 billion, as Forward Industries aims to become the SOL version of Strategy?

Written by: Yangz, Techub News

As the Bitcoin treasury company led by Strategy and the Ethereum treasury company represented by BitMine are vigorously acquiring assets, on August 25, a breaking report from Bloomberg dropped a bombshell on the "SOL DAT" concept. According to informed sources, Galaxy Digital, Multicoin Capital, and Jump Crypto are collaborating to promote a financing plan of about $1 billion, aiming to build a treasury strategy centered around SOL through a publicly listed company. This ambitious initiative quickly ignited market enthusiasm and was widely interpreted as the imminent birth of the "Solana version of Strategy." Driven by this expectation and the strong entry of firms like Pantera Capital and Sharps Technology during the same period, SOL has rallied from a low of about 187.2 USDT on August 26, and as of the time of writing, has surpassed 230 USDT, achieving a phase increase of 23%.

Now, the rumors have officially landed, and the actual scale far exceeds the initial expectations. On September 11, Nasdaq-listed Forward Industries (stock code: FORD) announced the completion of a private financing (PIPE) of up to $1.65 billion, with the funds primarily used to purchase SOL. This financing was completed in cash and stablecoin, led by Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital, with the three institutions subscribing for over $300 million in total. Other participating investors include several well-known investment institutions and angel investors, such as Bitwise Asset Management, Borderless Capital, Ribbit Capital, SkyBridge Capital, as well as founders from projects like Drift, Ethena, Jito, and Pudgy Penguins. Notably, Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani revealed that, aside from institutional funding, he personally added an investment of $25 million. Following the announcement, Forward Industries' stock price rose by 15% in pre-market trading.

Forward Industries' recent financing not only validates previous market speculation but also sets a significant milestone for SOL as an enterprise-level reserve asset, with an unexpected fundraising scale and a lineup of investors that can only be described as "all-star." However, this raises the question: who exactly is Forward Industries? Why did three major crypto VCs choose it?

Forward Industries: A "clean shell" resource with a 30-year history of being publicly listed and a long-term low stock price.

Forward Industries is not a company that was born out of the cryptocurrency wave. According to official information, the company was founded in 1961 and is rooted in the manufacturing industry. Its main services include end-to-end design, software and IoT design consulting, medical device design consulting, as well as the design and manufacturing of packaging, soft goods, and accessories. Its partners include major companies such as Steinway, Garmin, Google, Honeywell, and Leica.

However, despite having accumulated extensive experience in its niche, Forward Industries has not performed outstandingly in the capital markets. The company went public on June 16, 1995, and its stock price soared to a peak in 2005 before rapidly declining the following year, remaining at a low level for nearly 20 years thereafter.

Perhaps it is precisely because of these qualities that Forward Industries has become the ideal "blank canvas" in the eyes of Galaxy, Jump, and Multicoin. In the author's view, its main advantages are reflected in the following aspects:

Clean and compliant shell resources for listing: Forward Industries, as a publicly traded company for over 30 years, has a clear and transparent equity structure, a mature financial reporting system, and verified regulatory compliance. This avoids the uncertainties, high costs, and time delays associated with going public through SPAC mergers or other means, providing three major VCs with an immediately available, low-risk public trading platform that can quickly deploy their large-scale SOL treasury strategies.

The enormous potential for valuation reconfiguration and leverage effect: Compared to large companies, Forward Industries has a market capitalization of less than $60 million, and its traditional business market has low attention, resulting in its stock price being at a low level for a long time. This means that after injecting a brand new and highly attractive SOL DAT narrative, its stock price is expected to significantly increase the premium over its net asset value of SOL holdings. This vast space for value reassessment offers early investors potential returns far exceeding those of merely holding SOL, allowing for a strong capital leverage effect.

Strategic Flexibility and Focus: Compared to traditional tech giants, Forward Industries has a smaller original business scale, which results in less resistance to a thorough strategic transformation, allowing it to quickly and more focusedly transform into a "thematic" investment tool that purely tracks SOL value and pursues on-chain returns.

Natural liquidity and exit paths: As a publicly listed company, its shares provide ready liquidity and clear exit channels for all investors (including PIPE participants and future secondary market buyers). This is a key advantage that private entities or offshore funds cannot match.

In summary, the value of Forward Industries lies in its 30 years of public listing history, yet its stock price has long been at a low level, making it a "clean shell" resource. It essentially provides a ready-made, highly compliant capital operation platform. The three major crypto VCs are not focused on its traditional business itself, but rather on its immense potential to transform into a "flagship public company in the Solana ecosystem."

Why Solana? Strategic Bets and Ecological Beliefs of Three Major VCs

Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital have jointly chosen Solana as the core asset of Forward Industries' treasury strategy, not as a temporary decision, but based on a long-term optimistic view and deep involvement in its technological foundation, economic model, and ecological potential. These three institutions are not only investors in Solana but also builders and important promoters of its ecosystem.

First of all, the three major institutions have deep ties with Solana and have long established systematic layouts. Galaxy Digital is not only one of the main acquirers of SOL locked in the bankrupt assets of FTX (Galaxy Digital's subsidiary Galaxy Trading set up a $620 million fund last April specifically for the discounted acquisition of SOL; Pantera also established a $250 million fund in March last year to acquire FTX's SOL), but also executed a large-scale asset swap in April this year, exchanging over $100 million worth of ETH for SOL, demonstrating a strong commitment to allocation. Jump Crypto has long provided key liquidity and infrastructure support for Solana, and its developed Firedancer new validator client will greatly enhance network throughput and robustness. Multicoin Capital has been continuously deepening its investment and layout in many top projects within the ecosystem since leading Solana's seed round in 2018, making it one of the earliest and most influential institutional endorsers of Solana.

Secondly, SOL's unique economic model and yield generation capability are key reasons for its selection. As emphasized by Kyle Samani, Managing Partner of Multicoin Capital and newly appointed Chairman of Forward Industries, SOL possesses the "real yield" attribute that Bitcoin and Ethereum lack. Through staking, participating in DeFi, and capturing MEV (Miner Extractable Value), SOL can not only enjoy asset appreciation but also generate sustainable cash flow. As of September 2025, the average annualized return for SOL stakers is 8.05%, with about 1.86% coming from real economic activity and MEV, far higher than Ethereum's 0.41%. Kyle Samani bluntly stated, "SOL is the best asset to support DAT."

Moreover, as the saying goes, "to forge iron, one must be strong oneself." Solana has established significant technical and ecological barriers. According to a report released by Galaxy, Solana processed over 8.9 billion transactions in the second quarter of 2025, with an average daily DEX trading volume close to 3 billion dollars and on-chain revenue exceeding 1.1 billion dollars, which is more than 2.5 times that of Ethereum. Additionally, its market share is also impressive; year-to-date, Solana accounts for 46% of all on-chain transaction volumes, while Ethereum holds 22%. In terms of performance, Solana's average transaction fee is only 0.00025 dollars, with a theoretical throughput of up to 65,000 TPS, far surpassing Ethereum and other L1s.

Moreover, ecological prosperity is not only reflected in trading data but also in the high activity of developers. In 2024, Solana became the blockchain with the highest number of new developers added throughout the year, attracting over 7,600 new developers, an increase of 83% year-on-year, while most competing chains experienced a contraction during the same period. A healthy developer ecosystem is the cornerstone of long-term network value growth and provides Forward Industries with a rich array of application scenarios for utilizing treasury assets to participate in DeFi, staking, and other on-chain yield strategies in the future.

From technical foundations to economic models, from market position to ecological vitality, Solana demonstrates a clear path to sustainable development, making it an ideal choice for institutional asset allocation. The three major VCs are not only bullish on SOL but also on the future of the entire Solana ecosystem. The treasury strategy implemented through Forward Industries is a key step in translating their long-term beliefs into large-scale capital practices.

The current status of SOL DAT and the breakthrough opportunities that Forward Industries may bring.

Despite the strong performance of the Solana ecosystem in terms of technical adoption and developer activity, the overall market performance of SOL DAT still appears to lag behind. According to data compiled by Blockworks, as of the time of writing, publicly listed companies holding SOL have a total of 6,448,740 SOL, which is valued at approximately 1.5 billion USD based on the price of about 235 USDT at the time of writing. Among them, Upexi ranks first with over 2 million SOL, while Sharps Technology and DeFi Development rank second and third respectively.

While Bitcoin and Ethereum have set historical highs based on the DAT concept, the price of SOL has rebounded over 110% from its April low but has still failed to break through its previous high. This reflects that the current SOL DAT strategy's impact on market confidence and coin prices is still insufficient. The reasons for this, in my opinion, are mainly twofold:

First of all, the scale of existing SOL DAT companies is limited. In terms of quantity, there are currently 174 publicly listed companies holding Bitcoin and 19 holding Ethereum, while there are fewer than 10 SOL DAT companies. Secondly, SOL DAT companies also lack strong narrative leaders and brand consensus. Bitcoin has figures like Michael Saylor and Strategy, while Ethereum has Tom Lee and BitMine. In contrast, despite attempts by companies like Upexi, Solana has yet to see a "SOL reserve leader" that can establish a solid position in market recognition, making it difficult to form widespread brand premium and investment consensus.

However, this gap also provides Forward Industries with a clear opportunity to break through.

With a massive financing of $1.65 billion, Forward Industries is expected to become the largest publicly traded company by SOL reserves, with a potential SOL holding that may even exceed the total of all currently publicly disclosed companies. This leap in scale will not only greatly enhance the overall scale of the Solana DAT ecosystem but may also redefine the market's value expectations for "SOL reserve stocks."

More importantly, with the joint endorsement of Galaxy, Jump, and Multicoin, Forward Industries has the key elements to build market confidence: top-notch capital support, professional asset allocation capabilities, and deep empowerment from the core ecosystem builders of Solana. Kyle Samani, as the chairman of the board, can further leverage his industry influence to serve as a narrative figure similar to a "Michael Saylor of Solana," injecting stronger brand appeal into the project.

Therefore, although the current SOL DAT ecosystem is still in its early stages and has not yet fully realized its market potential, the entry of Forward Industries is expected to be a key variable in turning the situation around. Whether it can successfully play the role of "Solana's MicroStrategy" depends not only on the effectiveness of its treasury management execution but also on its ability to build market consensus and truly establish a benchmark image for Solana corporate treasuries.

Summary

As the market continues to discuss the impressive achievements of Bitcoin and Ethereum, a group of astute institutional investors has turned its attention to the next potential value high ground—Solana. Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, stated in an interview with CNBC that the crypto market is entering "Solana Season." With the warming expectations around spot ETF approvals, a significant inflow of subsequent funds, and the ongoing allocation by corporate treasuries, SOL is expected to replicate the upward trajectory of Bitcoin and Ethereum. This assessment aligns with the views of Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan, who similarly anticipates that corporate treasury purchases and the push from ETFs will bring unprecedented institutional demand for Solana.

Against this backdrop, the transformation of Forward Industries is quite timely. The market is closely watching whether this company can truly play a leading role in the "SOL version Strategy," successfully consolidating both capital and market confidence to become a genuine benchmark in the Solana ecosystem. With the steady progress of the ETF process and the continued influx of institutional funds, the answer to this question may soon be revealed.