Solana Gets First Billion-Dollar Publicly Traded Treasury as Forward Industries Buys 6.8M SOL

Medical design firm Forward Industries completed its first major Solana acquisition, becoming the largest publicly traded Solana treasury after amassing nearly $1.6 billion worth of SOL, it announced on Monday. 

The New York-based firm kick-started its Solana treasury stockpile with 6,822,000 SOL at an average price of $232. The firm used nearly all of the proceeds from the $1.65 billion PIPE—or private investment in public equity—it completed on Friday with financing from Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital. 

“Today’s purchase marks a significant milestone as Forward Industries begins executing its differentiated Solana treasury strategy, built to benefit from one of the fastest growing and most profitable blockchain networks,” Multicoin Partner and Forward Industries Chairman of the Board Kyle Samani said, in a statement.

“We are building the world’s largest Solana treasury company, a strategy that will both advance the Solana ecosystem and deliver long-term value for our shareholders.”

Forward’s acquisition of unlocked Solana tokens included a mixture of on-chain transactions and open market purchases, including $1 million purchased through Solana DEX aggregator DFlow. 

The firm anticipates making more on-chain transactions in the future, benefitting shareholders via the “best execution” of trades according to its statement. 

“We are pleased to make some of our SOL purchases on-chain, which is the first of many activities we expect the company to do natively on-chain,” said Samani. 

Now with nearly 7 million SOL on its balance sheet, Forward Industries more than triples the previously leading Solana treasuries like Upexi and DeFi Development Corp, which each hold around 2 million SOL. 

Shares of FORD are up 1.32% amid the news of the firm’s purchase, and have risen more than 27% in the last 5 trading days to $36.58. 

Solana has dropped around 3.5% in the last 24 hours, but is one of the biggest gainers among major crypto assets in the last week, gaining 10% in that time. The sixth-largest crypto asset by market capitalization may be poised for an “epic” yearly close according to Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, who indicated that pending decisions on spot Solana ETFs and the continued demand from digital asset treasuries like Forward Industries, could help propel the asset to new heights. 

A representative from Forward Industries did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.