Solana Treasury Firm Buys Back Shares After 89% Crash

The Forward Industries share repurchase program took a dramatic turn on Thursday when the New York-based Solana treasury company announced it would buy back more than 6 million shares of FWDI for $27.4 million — funded not by fresh capital, but by a $40 million crypto loan from Galaxy Digital, secured by the staked Solana sitting in its own treasury. It's a creative move. It's also a sign of just how badly this trade has gone.

Why Buy Shares Instead of More Solana?

When your stock trades at a steep discount to its net asset value, buying more of the underlying asset makes no sense — you're overpaying. That's the logic driving Forward's decision here, and Chief Investment Officer Ryan Navi spelled it out plainly. If the stock is already pricing in a discount to the firm's actual SOL holdings, repurchasing shares is effectively buying SOL cheaper than the open market offers.

"We are completely focused on driving meaningful SOL-per-share growth in the most efficient and risk-adjusted way possible," Navi said in a statement. "If the stock trades at a significant discount to our NAV, then it makes more sense for us to continue to buy our stock rather than buying SOL in the open market, because we're effectively buying more SOL at a discount when we buy our stock."

It's a rational argument — one that Ethereum treasury firm SharpLink has also adopted, pledging to only accumulate ETH when its mNAV trades above 1. The digital asset treasury playbook is evolving fast, and the rule seems to be: accumulate when premium, repurchase when discount. Forward is firmly in discount territory right now.

Forward is always looking for and assessing opportunities to increase SOL-per-share accretion for shareholders, and staying on top of opportunities where private investors or institutions are looking to sell blocks of shares or SOL is part of this.

The Galaxy Digital Loan — Smart Financing or More Leverage?

The transaction was privately negotiated and financed through a Galaxy Digital crypto loan worth $40 million, secured against the staked Solana that Forward holds in its treasury. The company only used $27.4 million of that facility for this specific buyback, which means there's still room to deploy more under the same arrangement.

This is worth pausing on. Forward already holds more than $1.1 billion in unrealized paper losses on its SOL position, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Artemis — ranking it sixth-highest among all digital asset treasury firms for underwater exposure. Taking on additional leverage against those same underwater assets is either genius or deeply risky depending on how you read the Solana price outlook.

The Forward Industries share repurchase program itself was authorized by the board in November 2025 with a total ceiling of $1 billion. This $27.4 million transaction fits within that mandate, Navi confirmed — meaning there's a lot more room for future buybacks if the discount persists.

How Deep Is the Hole Forward Is In?

Pretty deep. The firm burst onto the scene last fall, acquiring its first 6.8 million SOL for approximately $1.58 billion — an average cost basis of $232 per token. Today, Solana SOL price sits at $88.86. That's a drawdown of over 60% from their entry point, and it's reflected brutally in the stock: FWDI has shed 89% from its September 2025 peak of $46.00, finishing Thursday at $4.95 — down another 0.7% on the day and 83% over the past six months.

The firm now holds more than 7 million SOL currently valued at around $614 million. Against a cost basis north of $1.5 billion, that's a significant gap. Artemis puts Forward's unrealized loss at over $1.1 billion, and it has company — but being sixth-worst in a bad cohort isn't a trophy.

To its credit, management is trying to get costs under control alongside the buyback. Navi indicated some operating expenses are expected to fall as much as 45% during Q1 — which, if it happens, would meaningfully reduce the burn on the treasury while SOL finds its footing.

The company routinely assesses market conditions to determine what the best risk-adjusted path is to drive SOL-per-share accretion.