Forward Industries (FORD)’s SOL Strategy Explained: The Largest Solana Treasury

When most people think about Forward Industries (FORD), they picture a small Nasdaq-listed design company that has spent decades making cases for medical and tech devices. But in September 2025, Forward made a pivot that shocked both Wall Street and the crypto world. 

The company raised $1.65 billion and deployed nearly all of it into Solana (SOL). It instantly became the largest publicly traded Solana treasury.

This was not a quiet experiment. Forward Industries bought more than 6.8 million SOL tokens, worth about $1.58 billion, and announced that building a Solana-based treasury is now its core business. In doing so, Forward Industries stock went from being a sleepy small-cap to a vehicle for investors who want direct exposure to Solana’s upside. 

Overnight, FORD stock became something like a Solana proxy.

Let’s explain their move, the strategy for the future, and what this means for the overall crypto space!

Key takeaways

• Forward Industries (FORD) raised $1.65 billion in a PIPE deal led by Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital.
• The company purchased 6.8 million SOL, making it the largest publicly traded Solana treasury.
• Its strategy centers on staking, DeFi participation, and SOL-per-share growth, guided by Kyle Samani.
• Forward Industries stock has effectively become a proxy for Solana exposure, rising sharply after the pivot.
• Future plans include a $4 billion ATM offering to expand the treasury and deepen its Solana integration.

Background: from legacy manufacturer to crypto pivot

For more than 60 years, Forward Industries (FORD) was a quiet presence on Nasdaq. The company built its business around designing and manufacturing carrying cases for medical devices, handheld electronics, and other consumer tech accessories. 

Revenue was modest, and Forward Industries stock traded like a small-cap with limited growth prospects.

That’s why its September 2025 announcement stunned the market. Practically overnight, Forward pivoted from a niche manufacturing company into a crypto-focused treasury vehicle. 

Instead of trying to compete in its traditional sector, management decided to redeploy capital into Solana. It bet that the network’s speed, growth, and the fact that Solana’s one of the best crypto to stake offered far better long-term upside than its legacy business ever could.

This bold rebrand brought attention from both crypto and traditional investors to the FORD stock. Suddenly, a company many had overlooked became the face of the largest Ford Solana treasury. 

An old Nasdaq ticker has now been linked to one of the fastest-growing blockchain ecosystems.

$1.65 billion PIPE raise

Forward’s Solana bet wasn’t financed by debt or a slow build-up of reserves. Instead, the company executed one of the largest private investment in public equity (PIPE) deals ever seen for a small-cap Nasdaq firm. In September 2025, Forward raised $1.65 billion from a lineup of heavyweight backers.

Key participants in the PIPE included:

• Galaxy Digital: bringing institutional credibility and capital markets expertise
• Jump Crypto: a major player in trading and infrastructure for Solana
• Multicoin Capital: led by Kyle Samani, one of Solana’s earliest and strongest advocates
• C/M Capital Partners: Forward’s largest shareholder, deepening its stake in the new strategy
• Crypto angel investors: providing additional backing from within the ecosystem

For a company that previously generated only tens of millions in annual revenue, securing billions in capital signaled a complete shift in identity. Forward Industries was now positioning itself as a crypto-first treasury vehicle.

The PIPE also created a bridge between traditional equity markets and the fast-moving world of crypto assets. 

Investors who bought into the deal weren’t just betting on Forward Industries stock. They were betting on the success of Forward Industries’ Solana strategy. And by extension, on Solana itself.

SOL acquisition: building the largest treasury

Once the PIPE funds were secured, Forward wasted no time. The company announced that it had already deployed the bulk of the raise into Solana. They purchased around 6.822 million SOL at an average price of $232 per token, worth about $1.58 billion in total.

This instantly made Forward Industries the largest publicly traded Solana treasury, far surpassing peers such as Upexi and DeFi Dev Corp. Unlike competitors who hold a few million tokens combined, Forward’s move was designed to establish dominance from day one.

I can sum up the significance of this buy in three points:

• Scale: No other Nasdaq-listed company holds anywhere near this much unlocked SOL.
• Speed: Forward executed the purchases almost immediately after raising funds, showing urgency and conviction.
• Signal: The size of the buy sent a message that Forward isn’t experimenting — it is repositioning itself entirely around Solana.

By structuring the acquisition this way, the company secured a massive position. It also created a new identity. To many investors, Forward Industries stock is now synonymous with the Ford Solana treasury, and its future will likely rise and fall with SOL’s price action.

Forward Industries Solana treasury strategy

Forward has been clear that the treasury isn’t meant to sit idle. Instead, the company plans to put its Ford Solana treasury to work, generating yield and compounding returns over time. Management has described the approach as “on-chain first,” meaning most activities will take place directly within the Solana ecosystem for transparency and efficiency.

Key pillars of the strategy include:

• Staking SOL: earning roughly 8% annual yield from Solana’s inflation and network fees.
• DeFi participation: using lending, liquidity pools, and arbitrage opportunities to generate additional returns.
• Discounted locked SOL acquisitions: leveraging connections with sponsors and early investors to buy tokens at reduced prices.

A central part of the plan is the idea of “SOL per share.” Just as Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) focuses on increasing the amount of Bitcoin each share represents, Forward’s “north star” is to grow the number of SOL tokens that back each share of Forward Industries stock.

This strategy turns Forward from a passive holder into an active institutional player within the Solana ecosystem. It also means that the company’s performance isn’t tied only to SOL’s price, but also to how well it can execute on staking and DeFi opportunities.

Leadership and partnerships

The most striking change in leadership is the arrival of Kyle Samani, co-founder of Multicoin Capital, as board chairman. Samani has been a vocal believer in Solana since its early days, leading its 2018 seed round. 

Now, he’s moving forward with Forward’s long-term goal of growing “SOL per share”. The idea is to make sure that each share of Forward Industries stock represents a larger stake in the Solana ecosystem over time.

The PIPE financing also brought in powerful allies. Galaxy Digital and Jump Crypto, who led the funding, are now more than investors. They are expected to provide execution support, trading infrastructure, and institutional connections that give Forward a stronger foundation than most crypto treasury plays.

With Samani setting direction and Galaxy and Jump reinforcing execution, Forward isn’t just sitting on tokens. It’s aligning itself with the most experienced operators in the Solana world. That makes it more likely that the Forward Industries’ Solana pivot is not just a passing trend.

Market context and impact

Forward’s transformation didn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s part of a wider movement where publicly listed companies are reinventing themselves around crypto treasuries. The best-known example is Strategy, which turned into a Bitcoin proxy. More recently, firms like Bitmine and Shartpink are pursuing an Ethereum treasury strategy.

By going all-in on Solana, Forward positioned itself as the Solana equivalent of these treasury-first companies. The scale of its $1.65 billion raise and subsequent SOL purchase makes it the leader in this niche.

When the strategy was unveiled, FORD stock surged between 70% and 128% within days, showing how quickly the market re-priced the company based on its Solana holdings. From that moment, Forward Industries stock began trading less like a traditional small-cap manufacturer and more like a crypto proxy.

Key takeaways from the market reaction:

• Repricing effect: The stock’s value is now heavily tied to the size and performance of the Ford Solana treasury.
• Volatility risk: As SOL swings in price, investors should expect FORD shares to mirror those moves.
• Comparative positioning: Like MicroStrategy with Bitcoin or ETHZilla with Ethereum, Forward is turning itself into a vehicle for institutional-scale Solana exposure.

For traditional equity investors, this shift means buying FORD shares now carries crypto-level volatility. For the crypto community, it signals that major capital is flowing into Solana and that the blockchain is gaining recognition as a serious contender for corporate treasury strategies.

Future outlook

Forward’s pivot into Solana is just the beginning. After raising $1.65 billion and deploying it into SOL, the company signaled plans to keep building its treasury. 

A follow-up filing announced a potential $4 billion at-the-market (ATM) offering. It gives Forward flexibility to issue new shares and funnel more capital into Solana purchases.

Forward management has described the company as a “publicly traded institutional participant in the Solana ecosystem.” Their aim is to use its treasury not only for staking but also for active on-chain strategies.

Looking ahead, investors should weigh both opportunity and risk:

• Upside potential: If Solana continues to grow in adoption and value, Forward’s holdings  (plus staking yields and DeFi participation) could multiply the company’s net asset value.
• Volatility exposure: Because Forward Industries stock now trades as a Solana proxy, swings in SOL’s price will directly impact FORD’s share price.
• Execution risk: The success of the strategy depends on how effectively Forward can manage staking, DeFi exposure, and treasury expansion without overextending.

For now, Forward has positioned itself as the largest Solana treasury in the public markets, backed by heavyweight partners and guided by Kyle Samani’s vision of increasing “SOL per share.” 

Whether that translates into long-term shareholder value will depend on Solana’s trajectory and how skillfully Forward can execute its plan.

The bottom line

Forward Industries has rebranded itself from a niche manufacturer into the largest publicly traded Solana treasury. 

Backed by heavyweight investors and guided by Kyle Samani’s “SOL per share” vision, the company is now deeply tied to Solana’s growth. 

For crypto users, it’s a sign of institutional confidence in the network. For equity investors, it means FORD stock has become a direct proxy for Solana, with all the upside potential and volatility that entails.