Solana Treasury Forward Industries Uses Loan to Buy Back Shares After 89% Price Dive

Leading Solana treasury firm Forward Industries is buying back more than 6 million shares of FWDI for $27.4 million from an institutional investor, the firm announced on Thursday. 

The privately negotiated transaction reduces the firm’s common shares outstanding by 7.4% and was financed via a $40 million crypto loan through Galaxy Digital, which was secured by staked Solana held in the firm’s treasury. 

“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,” Forward Chief Investment Officer Ryan Navi told Decrypt. 

Navi confirmed that the firm’s purchase fits into the previously approved $1 billion share repurchase program that was authorized by its board of directors in November. As far as future buybacks, he added that “the company routinely assesses market conditions to determine what the best risk-adjusted path is to drive SOL-per-share accretion.”

Instead of accumulating more crypto, digital asset treasuries like Forward have typically sought to repurchase shares when their market caps trade at a discount to their net asset value. For example, Ethereum treasury firm SharpLink (formerly SharpLink Gaming) has pledged to only buy ETH when its mNAV trades above 1. 

Forward, which holds more than 7 million SOL currently valued at $614 million, will take a similar approach, its investment executive said.

“We are completely focused on driving meaningful SOL-per-share growth in the most efficient and risk-adjusted way possible,” he told Decrypt. “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.” 

Alongside its share buybacks, the firm is working to reduce operating expenses, as well, some of which it anticipates will drop as much as 45% during Q1. 

The New York-based firm burst onto the scenes last fall, acquiring its first 6.8 million SOL for approximately $1.58 billion. But with its first massive purchase made at an average cost of $232, its holdings are now deeply underwater as Solana trades at $88.86. 

According to data from blockchain analytics firm Artemis, the firm maintains the sixth-highest unrealized loss position among digital asset treasuries, with more than $1.1 billion in paper losses. 

Shares of FWDI finished the day down around 0.7% on Thursday and more than 83% in the last six months, changing hands at $4.95. Shares have fallen 89% since last year’s peak of $46.00, set in September.