
In brief
- Galaxy Digital has purchased more than $700 million worth of Solana since Wednesday, on-chain data shows.
- The buys are likely tied to Galaxy’s backing of Forward Industries, poised to be the largest Solana treasury firm.
- Solana hit its highest price since January on Friday, topping $241 and rising 19% in the last week.
Investment firm Galaxy Digital has purchased over $700 million in Solana within the past two days, as part of its investment in SOL treasury firm Forward Industries. And the price of Solana has continued to rise, all the while.
Galaxy has been transferring SOL mostly from Binance—and also from Coinbase—across multiple transactions, with data from Arkham Intelligence indicating that it has bought just over 3 million SOL since Wednesday.
The asset manager may be making these purchases on behalf of Forward Industries, in which it has led a $1.65 billion investment, with participation from Jump Crypto and Multicoin Capital.
Incorporated in 1961, Forward is a Nasdaq-listed product design company that’s using the proceeds of this week’s raise to build what will be the world’s largest publicly traded Solana treasury, with Galaxy responsible for acquiring and transferring the bulk of the SOL.
Galaxy’s collaboration with the firm comes as it takes a keener interest in Solana, which it described as “uniquely positioned to power the next generation of capital markets” in a tweet announcing its investment.
Galaxy founder and CEO Mike Novogratz also discussed the merits of Solana in an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday, declaring that Solana’s blockchain can process “14 billion transactions” per day.
Summarizing why Galaxy is excited about Solana, he said, “You’ve got a blockchain that’s now fast enough, tailor-made to be the blockchain for financial markets.”
He then referred to remarks made by SEC Chair Paul Atkins, who on Wednesday gave a keynote speech in which he discussed the agency’s Project Crypto push—its “sweeping initiative” to encourage “our markets to move on-chain.”
And because of the alignment of these two factors, Novogratz affirmed that he’s calling the current period “the season of SOL.”
This belief in Solana is reflected in the sheer size of Forward Industries’ $1.65 billion raise, in which Galaxy has taken a leading role. And such belief may ultimately have a snowball effect, with Solflare co-CEO and co-founder Vidor Gencel telling Decrypt that it’s a “clear signal” of institutional conviction in Solana.
“Nearly triple the size of the largest existing Solana treasury, this move marks one of the largest institutional bets on Solana to date, underscoring growing confidence among traditional companies in SOL’s long-term value—and we are already seeing the market position ahead of potential inflows,” he said.
Solana is currently up by 6% in the past 24 hours, rising above $241 for the first time since January on the back of Forward’s announcement of its completed $1.65 billion raise. SOL has risen by nearly 19% over the last week, making it the second-biggest gainer among the top 10 assets by market cap, behind Dogecoin.
According to Gencel, Galaxy’s focus on Solana is a sign that SOL is now being “seriously considered” as a treasury asset for institutions, whereas only Bitcoin and Ethereum had been major contenders.
Other industry figures agree that Galaxy’s new interest in the altcoin is a strong signal to other institutions that Solana is investable at scale.
“The network is seeing record activity, DeFi TVL growth, and major ecosystem traction,” said Satraj Bambra, co-founder and CEO of trading platform Rails. “This isn’t just a trade—it’s a vote of confidence that Solana will be a core layer of the crypto economy going forward.”
This could have a big impact on SOL’s price going forward, with Bambra suggesting that Galaxy’s purchase “kicks off a flywheel.” He added that potential Solana ETFs, which are awaiting SEC approval, “could open the floodgates for new demand.”
When combined with approaching upgrades such as Firedancer—a new validator client that will boost Solana’s throughput and improve network stability—the approval of SOL ETFs could be a major catalyst.
“Near-term, I see SOL tracking flows and ETF headlines; long-term, it’s about usage growth and cementing itself as a top-3 asset,” Bambra concluded.
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