M&A, Preferreds, Staking, Transparency, and Team

This week Kyle Samani joins the show to discuss the successful $1.65B raise for Forward Industries. We deep dive into how Forward Industries plan to converge between traditional markets & DeFi, the ultimate vision for the Solana treasury company, the difference between SOL & BTC DATs & why stablecoins are crypto's iPhone moment. Enjoy!

Although our guest this week is an Investment Partner of a registered investment adviser, nothing in this podcast should be considered an offer of Multicoin’s investment advisory services or should otherwise be confused for investment, tax, legal or other financial advice.

--

Follow Kyle: https://x.com/KyleSamani

Follow Jason: https://x.com/JasonYanowitz

Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod

--

Katana is a DeFi-first chain built for deep liquidity and real yield, by redirecting chain revenue back to active DeFi users. The 1 billion KAT campaign is live. Bridge and deposit directly into vaults in one simple click and start earning immediately on your ETH, BTC, USDC, and more. 

Go to app.katana.network to check it out. 

--

Is your treasury losing value to inflation? Learn how to make digital assets like ETH and SOL productive with uncorrelated, protocol-driven staking rewards. 

A new report from Liquid Collective and EigenCloud outlines a practical guide for CFOs to integrate institutional-grade staking and restaking. 

Read The Productive Treasury Report: https://liquidcollective.io/corporate-treasury-staking/ 

--

Allora is the new AI standard for DeFi platforms and agents to achieve sharper, faster, and more reliable financial systems than any single language model can offer. Instead of choosing and managing models, users state their goal, and the system delivers the best result. 

To learn more about Allora Network, visit https://www.allora.network/ and https://x.com/AlloraNetwork.

--

Crypto’s premiere institutional conference returns to London in October 2025. Use code 0x100 for £100 off at checkout: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2025-london

--

Blockworks is hiring a Research Data Analyst. If you live in SQL and love making sense of onchain chaos, apply today: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/Blockworks?utm_source=EQPb2dAAxr

--

Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3foDS38

Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/3SNhUEt

Subscribe on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3NlP1hA

Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/

Join the 0xResearch Telegram group: https://t.me/+UFFz4z3qyrhhMDYx

--

Timestamps:

(0:00) Introduction

(1:25) The Ultimate Vision For Forward Industries

(8:54) Raising $1.65B For Forward Industries

(10:52) Partnering With Jump & Galaxy

(16:31) Ads (Katana & EigenCloud)

(17:28) Integrating DATs Into DeFi

(25:22) M&A Strategies

(30:00) BTC vs SOL DATs

(32:28) Ads (Katana & EigenCloud)

(33:36) How Will SOL ETFs Impact Solana DATs?

(35:45) What's Next For Forward Industries?

(41:55) Lessons Learned From Hyperliquid's USDH

(46:36) Allora Ad

(47:08) The Internet Capital Markets Thesis

(53:58) Stablecoins Are Crypto's iPhone Moment

--

Check out Blockworks Research today! Research, data, governance, tokenomics, and models – now, all in one place

Blockworks Research: https://www.blockworksresearch.com/

Free Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter

--

Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.