Ryan Nabi, the firm's chief investment officer, said Nasdaq-listed Forward Industries (FWDI) has no corporate bonds and is completely underutilized, making it uniquely positioned to consolidate the battered digital asset treasury space and give it room to attack even as its peers wind down.
“Scale and an unleveraged balance sheet are real advantages in this market. We can play offense when others are playing defense,” Nabi said in an interview with CoinDesk.
“Forward Industries strategically avoids leverage and debt by design, giving us the flexibility to responsibly deploy leverage as market opportunities arise. The foundation we have built for Forward positions us to operate effectively in opportunity-rich market conditions and to function as a net integrator rather than a forced seller,” Nabi added.
Digital asset treasury companies, or those whose balance sheets are heavily weighted in cryptocurrencies, have come under increasing pressure amid the recent market downturn. Falling crypto prices have squeezed asset values, increased leverage and forced some companies to sell some of their crypto holdings to pay down debt and shore up liquidity, raising questions about the model's sustainability in a prolonged bear market.
Forward Industries is no exception. About 7 million solana $SOL$85.52 If the tokens were acquired at an average price of $232, the company's stack would be worth about $600 million. $SOLCurrent levels are just above $85. This equates to a paper loss of approximately $1 billion. FWDI stock has fallen from a high of nearly $40 at the peak of the digital asset treasury company's frenzy last year to just over $5 today.
Become a giant in Solana Treasury
Forward Industries' center of gravity shifted sharply in 2025, when it raised approximately $1.65 billion in private investments in public equity led by Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital. The deal made the company the largest Solana-focused finance company on the public market, with holdings larger than its next three competitors combined. The strategy is simple: accumulate. $SOLstake it to earn on-chain yield and take advantage of the company's cost of capital to drive per-share growth over time.
Purchasing in a turbulent market
Nabi, who joined the firm in December after serving as principal at KKR and managing director at ParaFi Capital, said crypto stocks remain highly turbulent and disciplined capital allocation creates tremendous accretive opportunities. If sentiment improves and the stock trades above its net asset value, the forward can issue shares to buy more cryptocurrencies. He said value addition can be more likely to occur when markets are down because prices and expectations are already compressed.
Why Solana?
Betting on Solana is as much about fundamentals as it is about positioning. Nabi argues that while Ethereum remains the dominant smart contract platform due to its market capitalization and decentralization, the layer 2 network fragments liquidity and dilutes the value of the base layer.
In contrast, Solana is optimized for quality, speed, cost, and finality, which are most important for consumer applications and capital markets use cases. Viral moments like last year's surge of meme-driven activity proved that the chain can handle millions of users and incredible transaction throughput, even if the application itself is ephemeral. “It showed what's possible,” Nabi said. “It's not a question of if the next breakout app will arrive, it's a question of when.”
Reduced capital costs
Forward's balance sheet flexibility goes beyond simple buy-and-hold. The company is betting its profits on $SOL The yield is approximately 6% to 7%, but this rate will decline over time as Solana's planned issuance decreases and supply disinflation increases.
We have also partnered with Sanctum to issue a liquidity staking token, fwdSOL, to earn staking rewards while using it as collateral for decentralized finance (DeFi). Venues like Camino allow Forward to borrow against its collateral at a cost below its staking yield, creating a more capital-efficient structure than most of its peers have access to, Nabi said.
permanent capital policy
In the long term, Nabi sees forwards as a permanent capital vehicle rather than a trade, more like Berkshire Hathaway than a redeemable or fixed-term fund. This opens the door to real-world asset underwriting, tokenized royalties, and other cash flow businesses that can help companies clear their cost of capital and ultimately bring it in-house.
“We are not running a trading book. We are building a long-term Solana Treasury,” Nabi said. “The difference at Forward is discipline: no leverage, no debt, and a long-term view of Solana as strategic infrastructure rather than a short-term bet.”
He added that in the short term, widespread stress across the sector has seen many digital asset treasury companies trading at deep discounts and poised for consolidation.
No leverage, deep support from top cryptocurrency investors and the largest investors $SOL Nabi believes Forward is one of the few companies in a position to lead in public market balance.
Kyle Samani announced Wednesday that he will step down as managing director of Multicoin Capital while remaining chairman of Forward Industries. It is worth noting that he is exiting the Multicoin Master Fund with FWDI shares and warrants rather than cash.
read more: Forward Industries launches $4 billion ATM service to expand Solana Treasury
