SOL-focused Forward Industries has had a tough run, but CIO says it's positioned for success

Nasdaq-listed Forward Industries (FWDI) is uniquely positioned to consolidate the beaten-down digital asset treasury space because it carries no corporate debt and is completely unlevered, giving it room to play offense while peers retrench, according to Ryan Navi, the company’s chief investment officer.

"Scale plus an unlevered balance sheet is a real advantage in this market. We can play offense when others are playing defense,” Navi told CoinDesk in an interview.

"Forward Industries has strategically avoided leverage and debt by design, giving us the flexibility to responsibly deploy leverage when market opportunities arise, Navi said. "The foundation we’ve built for Forward allows us to operate effectively in market conditions with abundant opportunity, and positions us to act as a net consolidator rather than a forced seller," he added.

Digital asset treasury companies, firms whose balance sheets are heavily weighted toward cryptocurrencies, have come under growing pressure amid the recent market downturn. Falling crypto prices have squeezed asset values and pushed leverage higher, forcing some companies to sell portions of their crypto holdings to service debt and shore up liquidity, raising questions about the model's sustainability in prolonged bear markets.

Forward Industries is no exception. With about 7 million solana $SOL$85.52 tokens acquired at an average price of $232, the company stack is worth about $600 million at $SOL's current level just above $85. That represents a paper loss of roughly $1 billion. FWDI's stock has slumped from a high near $40 at last year's peak of the digital asset treasury company frenzy to the current price just above $5.

Becoming a solana treasury giant

Forward Industries' center of gravity shifted sharply in 2025, when it raised roughly $1.65 billion in a private investment in public equity led by Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto and Multicoin Capital. The deal transformed the firm into the largest solana-focused treasury company in the public markets, with holdings larger than its next three competitors combined. The strategy is straightforward: accumulate $SOL, stake it to earn onchain yield and use the firm's cost-of-capital advantage to drive per-share accretion over time.

Buying in a dislocated market

Navi, who joined the firm in December after stints as a principal at KKR and as managing director at ParaFi Capital, said crypto equities remain deeply dislocated, creating opportunities for disciplined capital allocation to be highly accretive. When sentiment improves and the stock trades above net asset value, Forward can issue equity to buy more crypto; when markets are weaker, accretion can be easier to generate, he said, as prices and expectations are already compressed.

Why Solana

The bet on Solana is as much about fundamentals as it is about positioning. While Ethereum remains the dominant smart-contract platform by market capitalization and decentralization, Navi argues it has become slower and more expensive, with layer-2 networks fragmenting liquidity and, in his view, diluting value at the base layer.

Solana, by contrast, is optimized for speed, cost and finality, qualities that matter most for consumer applications and capital-markets use cases. Viral moments like last year’s meme-driven surge in activity proved the chain can handle millions of users and extraordinary transaction throughput, even if those applications themselves were fleeting. “That showed what’s possible,” Navi said. “It’s a question of when, not if, the next breakout app arrives.”

A lower cost of capital

Forward’s balance-sheet flexibility extends beyond simple buy-and-hold. The company stakes its $SOL at roughly a 6% to 7% yield, a rate that will gradually decline as Solana’s programmed issuance falls and supply becomes increasingly disinflationary.

It has also partnered with Sanctum to issue a liquid staking token, fwdSOL, which earns staking rewards while remaining usable as collateral in decentralised finance (DeFi). On venues like Kamino, Navi said, Forward can borrow against that collateral at costs below the staking yield, creating a more capital-efficient structure than most peers can access.

A permanent-capital play

Longer term, Navi sees Forward as a permanent-capital vehicle rather than a trade, more akin to a Berkshire Hathaway than a fund with redemptions or a fixed life. That opens the door to underwriting real-world assets, tokenized royalties and other cash-flowing businesses that clear the company’s cost of capital and can eventually be brought in-house.

“We’re not running a trading book, we’re building a long-term Solana treasury,” Navi said. “What differentiates Forward is discipline: no leverage, no debt, and a long-term view on Solana as strategic infrastructure rather than a short-term bet.”

In the near term, he added, widespread stress across the sector has left many digital asset treasury companies trading at steep discounts, setting the stage for consolidation.

With no leverage, deep backing from blue-chip crypto investors and the largest $SOL balance in the public markets, Navi believes Forward is one of the few firms positioned to lead that roll-up.

Kyle Samani said Wednesday that he was stepping down as managing director of Multicoin Capital while remaining chairman of Forward Industries. He notably is taking his exit from the Multicoin Master Fund in FWDI shares and warrants instead of cash.

Read more: Forward Industries Launches $4B ATM Offering to Expand Solana Treasury