Forward Industries is looking to blur the line between Wall Street and Web3.
After amassing the largest corporate treasury of Solana, the Nasdaq-listed company now wants to take the unusual step of turning its own equity into a blockchain-based asset.
The initiative is being developed with fintech firm Superstate through its Opening Bell platform, which enables regulated onchain issuance of securities. If implemented, Forward shareholders could shift their stock from traditional brokerage accounts onto Solana, gaining the ability to trade around the clock with near-instant settlement.
Forward also envisions new utility for its equity in decentralized finance. The company is working with Drift, Kamino, and Jupiter Lend to have tokenized FORD shares accepted as collateral across Solana’s lending protocols — an experiment that would make common stock function like any other digital asset in DeFi markets.
Chairman Kyle Samani said the plan underscores Forward’s conviction that Solana will become central to capital markets. It also follows the company’s aggressive Solana strategy: a $1.65 billion PIPE financing earlier this month backed by Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital, which established a $4 billion Solana reserve equal to nearly 3% of the token’s supply.
Regulatory approval remains a question mark, and Forward has not yet disclosed how close it is to securing a green light. Still, the move highlights how some publicly traded companies are beginning to experiment with tokenization not just for outside assets, but for their own shares — a step that could reshape how equity is issued, traded, and used in the years ahead.
