By Nancy, PANews

Bitcoin has Michael Saylor, and Ethereum has Tom Lee. These two are undoubtedly the most influential voices in the crypto treasury narrative this cycle, and are considered by the community to be the "MLM gurus" of BTC and ETH, respectively. However, the Solana Treasury Company has been lacking a true evangelist.

As Wall Street turns its attention to Solana, a group of DAT (crypto treasury company) players are entering the market one after another. Is it possible that Kyle Samani, co-founder of Multicoin Capital and newly appointed chairman of SOL Treasury Forward, will become the "spokesperson" of Solana DAT?

Slowing down crypto investment, long-time "ally" Multicoin is building a DAT

Recently, there have been constant bullish voices in the market for SOL, with the price of the currency approaching its historical high, and the world's largest Solana treasury is also taking shape.

Recently, global design firm Forward Industries announced a $1.65 billion private placement to launch Solana's financial strategy. This capital infusion includes major investors such as Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital, which have pledged over $100 million, along with participation from numerous investment firms and angel investors.

As a core Solana bull, Samani not only co-led a round of investment in Forward Industries through Multicoin, but also personally invested an additional $25 million and assumed the role of Chairman, as DAT became a key narrative in the new cycle. Amidst growing skepticism about the sustainability of cryptocurrencies, he demonstrated his confidence in the Solana treasury with real money.

Multicoin was an early supporter of Solana. Public data shows that from 2018 to 2021, Multicoin participated in three rounds of Solana funding, including the seed round in May 2018, the Series A round in July 2019, and the $314 million funding round in 2021. In May 2018, Solana Labs sold 79.25 million tokens at $0.04 per token, with Multicoin being one of the primary buyers, resulting in a return of over 5,000 times.

As Solana's market size grew from zero to $100 billion, Multicoin not only published numerous Solana investment theses to build momentum, but also participated deeply in the development of the Solana ecosystem, investing in dozens of key Solana projects, including io.net, Pyth, Jito, Render, and StepN. Multicoin also demonstrated its commitment to supporting Solana by publishing articles after each investment, explaining its rationale and providing a compelling narrative for the project.

It's worth noting that Multicoin has significantly reduced its investment frequency in recent years. In the first half of this year, Multicoin publicly announced only six investment projects, far less than last year's investment cycle. Furthermore, Multicoin has not announced any new investment activities since June of this year.

Beneath the calm surface, Multicoin is brewing a new layout direction for DAT.

Multicoin, with its long history in the Solana ecosystem, undoubtedly has a natural advantage and boasts its ability to explore additional strategies for Forward Industries. Forward Industries will be uniquely positioned to access discounted and locked SOL within the Solana ecosystem through a network of investors, established since the 2018 seed round. In addition to traditional on-chain activities such as staking and DeFi participation, Forward Industries may also exploit arbitrage opportunities by exploiting the difference in funding costs between traditional financial institutions and DeFi platforms. This strategy can be implemented in a variety of ways and flexibly operated with different counterparties.

Furthermore, leveraging the seniority of its investors, the size of its treasury, and its close relationship with the Solana ecosystem, Forward Industries can secure transactions with key Solana protocols and applications, enhancing liquidity. Multicoin further stated that its core goal is to increase "SOL per share" through customized strategies and active management of treasury assets.

Many people claim that SOL is the best asset of DAT and gamble with real money.

From capital betting, to industry debates, to DAT strategic layout, Samani's figure runs through the entire narrative of Solana and is regarded as the most determined and important driving force.

Prior to founding Multicoin, Samani founded Pristine, a health IT startup focused on providing smart glasses solutions for frontline workers. The company raised over $5 million in venture capital and was acquired by Upskill in 2017.

After entering the crypto space, Samani co-founded Multicoin, a research-driven investment firm that has garnered significant attention for its frequent writing and publishing of investment research reports. His investment logic has proven effective. According to official disclosures last year, Multicoin has generated a 9,281% return for early investors since the fund's inception in 2017. This track record has made Samani highly valuable within the industry, even to competitors. Dragonfly partner Hasseb Qureshi once stated, "I'm not a fan of Samani, but judging by his investment track record, he's undoubtedly a top investor and a rare non-consensus thinker in the industry."

Samani initially made his fortune in Ethereum. He entered the crypto space in 2016, driven by the promise of smart contracts and permissionless finance, and made his first real fortune during the early days of Ethereum's price rally. However, his self-proclaimed confidence gradually waned as Ethereum lacked clear progress on scalability.

He sees another possibility in Solana. He has publicly stated many times that "Solana will surpass Ethereum and become the leading public chain supporting the internet capital market." In his view, as more users, capital, and applications migrate to Solana, this ecosystem will give birth to the big winners of the next cycle.

To some extent, Multicoin and Solana are "friends of life and death."

This deep integration also led to a period of setbacks for Multicoin. In 2022, the bankruptcy of FTX, Solana's largest supporter, caused Multicoin's assets to plummet 55% in two weeks, resulting in a 91.4% loss for the year, its worst performance since its inception. Despite this, Multicoin remained steadfast in its support for Solana and continued to participate in its ecosystem development, becoming a crucial force in Solana's resurgence.

In his latest article, Samani bluntly declared SOL the best asset for DATs, citing "real returns." He stated that SOL can generate real returns through staking. SOL's returns come from organic economic activity and MEV (maximum extractable value). As of September 2025, the average yield for SOL stakers was 8.05%, of which approximately 6.19% came from inflation and approximately 1.86% from organic economic activity and MEV, with this return paid approximately every 2.5 days. In comparison, the nominal staking return for ETH during the same period was approximately 3.21%, of which 2.81% came from inflation, leaving a real return of only 0.41%. As the foundation of a perpetual capital instrument, this makes SOL an extremely attractive asset for DATs.

He also pointed out that BTC, lacking collateral and real returns, is completely infeasible in a DAT scenario. This difference makes SOL a natural choice for building a DAT. Forward Industries can leverage SOL's real returns to fulfill its obligations, something BTC DATs simply cannot do.

However, Samani lacks a Wall Street background, and perhaps his role in the Solana DAT narrative cannot be directly compared to Michael Saylor or Tom Lee, who have Wall Street appeal. He is closer to Joseph Lubin of Sharplink Gaming, an early staunch supporter, capital promoter, and narrative evangelist.