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

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:

Borrow at 4–5%, deploy into Solana DeFi at 12–15%
Earn yield and pay perpetual preferreds with cashflow
Capture M&A upside by acquiring smaller DAT companies
Outperform in bear markets by shrinking supply and focusing on per-share metrics

The MNAV Premium Strategy

Market-to-Net Asset Value (MNAV) ratios determine whether treasury companies work.

Here’s how MNAV works:

If a company's stock price trades at a higher value than the value of its underlying crypto holdings, it trades at an MNAV >1. For example, if company X SOL holdings are worth $100 per share, but its stock is trading at $120 per share, it has a 20% mNAV premium.
This premium is valuable because it allows the company to issue new shares at a price higher than the value of its assets. The company can then use the capital raised from these share sales to buy more SOL, which further increases its mNAV. This creates a powerful, self-reinforcing cycle of accumulation, often referred to as a "flywheel."

"MicroStrategy has traded as high as 2.5x MNAV. Most treasury companies trade between 0.7x to 1.7x today."

The critical question: Why pay above 1x MNAV when you could just buy Solana directly?

Kyle's answer is execution. Treasury companies that can prove they increase SOL-per-share through yield generation, leverage strategies, and M&A will command sustained premiums.

"Our North Star is SOL per share, not absolute SOL holdings. If we trade below 1x MNAV, we'll sell balance sheet assets to get back above 1x."

Solana vs Ethereum: It’s not even close

“Ethereum has more capital sitting there. But Solana has more velocity, more usage, and more economic activity.”

Kyle’s argument:

Solana outpaces Ethereum in daily on-chain trading volume, whereas Ethereum’s supply is much higher ($156B on Ethereum vs $12B on Solana)
Solana stablecoin velocity is far higher, despite lower supply
Capital on Ethereum is “latent” — it sits idle
Solana’s DEXs, order books, and borrow/lend protocols are 10–100x more capital efficient

"No one talks about gross wealth, they talk about GDP. You need economic activity, you need turnover. Solana is in a much healthier state."

Corporate Chains vs. Open Chains

2025 saw the rise of corporate L1s: Stripe’s Tempo, Circle’s ARC, and Sony’s failed attempts.

This might seem threatening, but Kyle sees opportunity:

"Corporate layer ones have been tried many times. Their success rate thus far was zero percent."

His prediction: Corporate chains will drive competitors toward neutral alternatives.

“Stripe’s chain just made Solana more attractive to everyone who competes with Stripe.”

Solana isn’t just fast. It’s politically neutral:

Open source
Globally distributed validators
Competing apps and stablecoins on the same chain
Multiple validator clients (Agave, Firedancer, SIG)

The Regulatory Tailwinds

Kyle points to concrete policy wins that change everything:

"We just had the Genius Act passed. The Clarity Act is coming soon. SEC Chair Paul Atkins announced Project Crypto — moving U.S. securities markets on-chain."

The shift from regulatory hostility to active support creates a completely different environment for crypto adoption.

"Life insurance policies still can't own crypto. Mutual funds don't own any. We're probably years away from full recognition, and that's the opportunity."

Timeline for Internet Capital Markets

"Anatoly was singularly focused on building what we called 'Decentralized Nasdaq.' Today that's evolved into internet capital markets."

Read Kyle’s thesis here.

Kyle draws parallels to previous infrastructure shifts to predict timing:

"iPhone came out in 2007. Most people didn't really get mobile until 2009-2013. But if you bought Apple stock anywhere during that period, it was still great timing because it kept compounding."

Cloud computing followed a similar trajectory. The technology existed, early adopters proved value, then mainstream adoption accelerated once the benefits became undeniable.

Kyle's prediction: Mainstream acceptance arrives in 2027-2028.

"I think the world accepts internet capital markets as a mega-thesis around 2027-2028. That's the iPhone 2012 moment. There's still incredible growth ahead of us."

That’s it for now.

Take care,
Marc