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“Building the Most Natively Onchain Public Company” — New Solana DAT Has Big Plans
Interview with Kyle Samani on their new Solana Treasury Company Forward Industries.
Fiodar Yuzhyk & Maximilian Vargas
September 19, 2025
With over $900 million in originated loans, Coinbase’s Bitcoin-backed lending program has quietly become one of the most successful product launches of the year. And now, the exchange is doubling down.
Yesterday, Coinbase announced a new DeFi integration that will let users not just borrow stablecoins, but lend them too. Powered by Morpho, the feature currently offers up to 10.8% yield, directly within the Coinbase app.
Combined with the company’s new credit card, which will offer up to 4% cashback in bitcoin, Coinbase is starting to look less like an exchange and more like a crypto-native neobank. At a time when many U.S. banks still offer 0% on deposits, users might actually start asking where their money works hardest.
Today, we’ll talk about:
Interview: Kyle Samani on building “the most natively onchain public company”
SEC introduces new fast-track rule for ETFs
Kraken rolls out MiCA-compliant ICOs
HIGH SIGNAL NEWS
Coinbase's Base Chain explores native token. No further details were shared, except that the motivation is to "accelerate Base's decentralization" and "expand opportunities for builders and creators across the ecosystem."🪙
Tether unveils U.S.-regulated stablecoin. $USAT is expected to go live by the end of the year, with former White House official Bo Hines serving as CEO of the venture.🇺🇸
Kraken rolls out MiCA-compliant ICOs. Through a strategic partnership with onchain fundraising platform Legion, Kraken users will soon be able to invest in a selection of Initial Coin Offerings. Scroll down to our Proof-of-Talk with Matt O’Connor, Legion’s Co-founder, for more details on the partnership.🐙
Prediction markets are heating up. According to The Information, Polymarket and Kalshi are considering raising additional capital at valuations of $9 billion and $5 billion, showing huge valuation jumps from their fundraises earlier this summer. Additionally, an SEC filing suggests that the former might introduce a native token.🔮
Google launches AI-agent payments protocol with stablecoin support. Called AP2, it automates value transfer between AI-driven services and leverages Coinbase's x402 protocol for crypto payments.🤖
CAPITAL MARKETS
“Building the Most Natively Onchain Public Company” — New Solana DAT Has Big Plans
SOL DAT: Last week, U.S. manufacturer Forward Industries ($FORD) raised $1.65 billion to launch a Solana-focused digital asset treasury (DAT) strategy, led by high-profile players Galaxy, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital.
Why it matters: Following BTC and ETH, SOL is the next major crypto-asset making its way onto the balance sheets of publicly listed companies. Already in August, a U.S. healthcare company secured $400 million to establish a SOL DAT. And following FORD’s announcement, another vehicle disclosed a $500 million raise this week, with plans to increase initial commitments to as much as $1.25 billion.
Not your average DAT: According to Kyle Samani, Multicoin’s Co-founder and Managing Partner, who will serve as chairman of Forward’s board, the company’s ambitions go far beyond just buying and holding SOL: "We aim not only to become the biggest SOL treasury vehicle, but also the most natively onchain public company in the world, making the case for other companies to move onchain as well."
Full steam ahead: The company has already hit its first milestone. Of the initial funds raised, $1.58 billion has been deployed into SOL, making Forward the largest SOL treasury vehicle with about 6.8 million SOL, or 1.25% of circulating supply. To solidify that lead, Forward this week announced its first at-the-market equity offering, targeting up to $4 billion in additional capital.
Interview: In our conversation, Samani outlined the concrete strategy to achieve the set goals, unpacked what it actually means to be the most natively onchain company, and explained why he views SOL as a superior asset for a DAT strategy compared to BTC.
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On why Forward was created:
“After the SEC’s Project Crypto remarks, it became clear that bringing U.S. securities markets onchain would be a long and messy process. There are going to be a lot of weird things that have to get figured out — governance, compliance, corporate actions — and somebody has to go first and just do them. Together with Galaxy and Jump, we decided we were willing to take on the role of the guinea pig.
Ultimately, our goal is to show that — and how — a public company can operate natively onchain. If we can get this right, we’re sure many others will follow, which fosters the growth of both Solana and the entire crypto ecosystem.”
On why SOL is the most superior crypto-asset for a DAT:
“When I looked at Michael Saylor’s model, I realized it’s actually pretty risky. BTC doesn’t generate yield. So when Strategy issues preferred stock with a 9% coupon, the only way to pay that is by issuing more debt or equity, which makes the whole structure solely dependent on price appreciation.
With SOL, it’s different. It’s a productive asset, and the ability to generate yield is a real advantage. When we spoke with bankers about our perpetual preferred plans, their initial reaction was that we’d have to pay higher rates than Saylor because SOL is smaller and less liquid. But once I showed them that we can actually generate real yield from staking and DeFi strategies, they admitted we might be able to get better terms than Saylor, since we can prove exactly where coupon payments will come from.”
On Forward’s balance-sheet strategy and how it generates yield:
“The playbook has two main components. First, we will stake a substantial majority of our SOL. At today’s rates, that earns around 8% annually.
Second, we run a bank-to-DeFi spread strategy to capture the difference between TradFi borrowing costs and DeFi lending yields. In practice, that means posting SOL as collateral, borrowing real dollars from banks at roughly 5-6%, converting into USDC, and deploying those funds into Solana DeFi protocols such as lending markets.
These markets currently offer yields closer to 10% on stablecoins, which implies a spread of about 4-5% today — though we fully expect rates to compress as more capital comes in.
We also aim to tap into new DeFi primitives at scale and negotiate special deals with protocols. For example, deploying $500 million into a platform like Kamino could come with additional token allocations or preferential terms, creating yield on top of yield. Beyond that, we will opportunistically buy locked SOL when the terms make sense, but that will always be a minority position within the balance sheet.”
On what it means to be the “most natively onchain public company”:
“It means running as much of the corporate stack onchain as possible: equity issuance, dividends, shareholder votes, payroll, and more.
We actually executed our very first $1 million SOL purchase directly onchain through DFlow and tweeted the transaction ID. This way we wanted to set the tone that this isn’t just marketing.
We also plan to publish our company wallet addresses, so investors can see what’s happening in real time. That’s a huge contrast to traditional public companies, where you only get weekly or bi-weekly disclosures.”
On the DAT market in general and how big FORD can get:
“First of all, I’m skeptical of DATs built around assets smaller than Solana. Liquidity in those markets is thin, the surrounding ecosystems are immature, and banks or other large lenders are unlikely to accept such assets as collateral. That combination makes it difficult for them to scale and severely limits the strategies they can pursue.
Now for the major assets, I expect heavy consolidation. In the long run, I suspect DATs will need at least $2 billion to survive. For SOL specifically, I think only a handful of DATs will make it, probably on a regional basis. I’m more skeptical that multiple vehicles can coexist in a single jurisdiction. In that environment, we fully expect to be on the acquiring side and to essentially lead this consolidation.
And as for how big this can get: if we execute correctly over the next five years, there is a path to $50 billion and beyond.”
REGULATION
SEC Approves Fast-Track Listing Process, Kicks Off ETF Race
Speedrunning ETFs: On Wednesday, the SEC approved generic listing standards for commodity- and digital asset-based ETPs on three national securities exchanges — Cboe BZX, Nasdaq, and NYSE Arca. In practice, this means these exchanges can now list spot crypto ETFs without waiting for individual SEC approval, as long as the products meet standardized criteria.
Why it matters: Until now, all spot crypto ETPs required a case-by-case SEC approval, a process that could take up to 240 days and offered no guarantee of success. The new standards change that. By setting clear, uniform requirements, the SEC has created a framework that allows eligible products to move through a fast-track listing process. For issuers, this means less cost, less uncertainty, and significantly shorter timelines to bring new ETPs to market.
How it works: To qualify for this shortcut and avoid the lengthy rule-change process, an ETP’s underlying asset must meet at least one of three conditions:
ISG membership: The asset trades on a market that is a member of the Intermarket Surveillance Group (ISG).
Futures track record: The asset has an established futures market, with contracts trading for at least six months on a CFTC-regulated exchange.
Existing ETFs: An ETP already exists on a national exchange that provides at least 40% exposure to the same asset. In this case, new ETFs tied to that asset also qualify.
Who qualifies today: According to Galaxy Research, 11 of the top 100 tokens by market cap meet at least one of these criteria today: BCH, LTC, LINK, XLM, AVAX, SHIB, DOT, SOL, HBAR, DOGE, and XRP. This makes them immediate contenders for the first wave of listings under the new regime.
Let the race begin: That wave may already be underway. On Thursday, REX Shares launched spot ETFs tied to XRP and DOGE, setting the pace for what could become a crowded race. Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas projects that well over 100 crypto spot ETFs could launch in the next 12 months.
Matt Hougan is Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, a leading crypto asset manager that oversees $15 billion in client assets across more than 40 ETPs, ETFs, and index funds.
If ETF market history is any indication, generic listing standards will usher in a wave of new crypto ETPs. When the SEC adopted the same standard — the “ETF Rule” — in 2019 for stocks and bonds, average annual ETF launches tripled from 117 to 370, and the number of issuers ballooned as it became push-button easy to launch new products. I expect the same dynamic here, with dozens of single-asset crypto ETPs launching alongside a new wave of index-based products.
That matters because crypto looks far more robust with 20 ETPs than with 2. This breadth will attract traditional investors who’ve so far dabbled with 0.5–1% allocations; that number is heading to 5%. Now, might flows shift to newer products in the short term, e.g. to SOL ETPs instead of ETH ETPs? Sure. But does it matter when the overall pie gets 10X bigger? Absolutely not. And that’s the real story.
There are also two key second-order effects: first, crypto ETPs increasingly act as a kind of L2 for investment-related trading, freeing up space on the underlying networks. Second, we’ll see rapid growth in regulated derivatives tied to these assets, making markets deeper and more efficient.
Stablecore | $20 million | Unknown : Platform enabling community and regional banks and credit unions to integrate digital asset products alongside their existing banking cores.
Titan | $7 million | Seed : Meta-DEX aggregator on Solana.
Bio Protocol | $6.9 million | Seed : Protocol enabling scientists to turn their work into decentralized AI agents to accelerate research and raise funding via token sales.
A conversation with Matt O'Connor, Co-founder of onchain fundraising platform Legion, about the company’s strategic partnership with Kraken and how it ties into Legion’s broader vision.
What do you think of today's briefing? |
Disclaimer: The information provided in the Crypto Briefing by Blockstories does not constitute investment advice. Accordingly, we assume no liability for any investment decisions made based on the content presented herein.
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