Forward Industries Unveils Solana Validator, Delegates Entire $1.5B SOL Stash to It

Forward Industries (FORD) unveiled a validator node on the Solana blockchain, delegating its entire stash of 6.8 million SOL ($1.5 billion) to it.

Built on DoubleZero, a global network designed to improve the performance of blockchain systems, the validator allows investors to delegate stake to Forward at zero cost, the company said.

It uses Jump Crypto’s Firedancer client and is integrated with Galaxy, both of which have supported Forward’s Solana-focused treasury strategy.

Blockchain validators are network participants responsible for verifying and authorizing new transactions and creating new blocks. Their importance lies in their arbitration of trust and security for a decentralized network, collectively enforcing protocol rules and achieving consensus on the accurate state of the ledger.

Forward's validator is expected to rank among the top 10 on the Solana network by stake. All 6.8 million tokens held by Forward have been delegated to the node, with future validators also planned to run exclusively on DoubleZero.

It comes nearly a month after Forward completed a $1.65 billion private investment round to build out what is now the largest solana treasury among publicly traded companies. DeFi Development Corp (DFDV), the second-largest publicly traded SOL treasury firm, holds around 2.09 million tokens.

Forward Industries followed that private investment round with a $4 billion at-the-market (ATM) equity program, giving it flexibility to grow its holdings and operations.

Forward Industries’ shares dropped 7% on Tuesday, but pared some of these losses in early trading Wednesday to trade over 4% higher at $24.67 during morning trading.