Forward Industries to Tokenize Stock on Solana

Forward Industries, a Nasdaq-listed company that possesses the largest corporate Solana treasury, is eager to bring its equity to the blockchain.

On Monday, the firm announced a collaboration with the fintech company Superstate to tokenize Forward Industries (FORD) stock on the Solana blockchain using Superstate’s Opening Bell. This regulated onchain issuance platform enables public companies to tokenize equity on Solana.

If this initiative moves forward, shareholders would have the opportunity to bridge their common stock between brokerage accounts and Solana. This could potentially unlock 24/7 trading, near-instant settlement, and access to new pools of global liquidity.

Although this appears to be a significant advancement for Forward, the company has not yet revealed whether regulators have approved the tokenized shares or if they are still in the planning phase.

In addition, Forward Industries intends to make its tokenized FORD stock available as collateral in onchain lending activities.

The company stated in its announcement that it is collaborating with Solana-based lending protocols such as Drift, Kamino, and Jupiter Lend to facilitate the use of tokenized FORD equity as an acceptable form of collateral across their crypto lending platforms.

Kyle Samani, chairman of the board of directors at Forward Industries, highlighted that this move underscores their belief that Solana will be central to capital markets. He emphasized that it also allows shareholders to directly participate in the emerging tokenized economy.

Forward’s Expanding Solana Strategy

This announcement represents a significant escalation in Forward’s strategy regarding Solana. On September 8, the company closed a $1.65 billion Solana-focused private investment in public equity (PIPE) deal, backed by Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital. These funds were used to establish the largest corporate Solana treasury.

Following that, the company filed for an at-the-market (ATM) equity offering program of up to $4 billion, which will provide it with the flexibility to sell shares incrementally to support its Solana treasury.

With Forward’s creation of a $1.6 billion Solana reserve, the total Solana holdings by companies has reached 17.11 million SOL tokens, valued at approximately $4 billion. This constitutes nearly 3% of the entire Solana token supply.