51 Insights – What Matters in Digital Assets

The $1.6B Solana Treasury Bet, with Kyle Samani, Co-Founder of Multicoin Capital

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Sep 16, 2025

Kyle Samani, co-founder of Multicoin Capital and early backer of Solana, discusses his ambitious new venture, Forward Industries, a $1.65B treasury focused on Solana. He elaborates on why they chose Solana over Bitcoin, the unique investment strategies of treasury companies, and the challenge of leveraging decentralized finance. The conversation dives into the competitive landscape between Solana and Ethereum, corporate blockchain dynamics, and the future of internet capital markets, all highlighting Solana's potential to reshape financial infrastructure.

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INSIGHT

Public Company On-Chain Proof

Forward Industries aims to rebuild capital markets on-chain by moving fundraising, governance, dividends, payroll and vendor payments onto Solana.
Kyle argues a public company proving these operations on-chain will validate on-chain corporate utility to reluctant institutions.

ADVICE

Use DeFi Yield To Finance Treasuries

Use yield from Solana DeFi and staking to generate cash flow and arbitrage credit spreads versus traditional borrowing costs.
Deploy dollar debt into Solana DeFi to earn higher yields and pay coupons on perpetual preferreds or similar instruments.

INSIGHT

MNAV Depends On Accretion Capability

MNAV reflects market price relative to NAV and varies widely across treasury firms today.
Kyle says management must prove they can accrete SOL per share to justify trading above 1x MNAV and drive long-term value.

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Hey, it’s Marc. ✌️

“Solana is the foundation for Internet Capital Markets. And we’re building the most on-chain public company in the world to prove it.”

We sat down with Kyle Samani — co-founder of Multicoin Capital, early Solana backer, and now Chairman of Forward Industries — a newly launched $1.65B Solana treasury company backed by Multicoin, Galaxy Digital, and Jump [RELEASE]. 📈 NASDAQ: FORD

"We are now the largest Solana DAT Treasury company in the world. And I can tell you our aspirations are a lot greater than that. We just got to the starting line and we're sprinting."

Kyle’s not new to making bold bets. From launching Multicoin in 2017 to leading Solana’s seed round in 2018, his views have often been early — and right. Now he’s taking that same conviction to public markets and is betting everything on Solana's internet capital markets vision.

We talked about:

* Why Forward Industries raised $1.65B for Solana (not Bitcoin)

* The MNAV premium game and what happens in bear markets

* How treasury companies can actually outperform holding crypto directly

* Solana vs Ethereum

* Why corporate layer ones will fail

* The timeline for internet capital markets going mainstream

Let’s jump in.

Why FORD exists

“It’s not enough to just buy Solana and trade at a premium. We want to rebuild capital markets on-chain.”

Kyle sees Forward Industries as the first fully on-chain public company — not just buying SOL, but running payroll, governance, dividends, and vendor payments entirely on-chain.

The vision:

* Public company treasury model, but with real utility and cash flow

* On-chain fundraising and operations

* Yield from Solana DeFi, staking, and credit arbitrage

They’ve already secured ~$1.65B, including personal capital from Kyle and institutional backers. Up to 75% of capitalcame from TradFi institutions, including pensions, endowments, and sovereigns.

Solana > ETFs

Kyle breaks down why treasury companies can outperform ETFs:

“ETFs give you fixed exposure. But with a treasury company, you can grow the asset per share through yield, arbitrage, and M&A.”

His strategy: