Solana's "King of Calls" - Multicoin, a long-time "ally", bets on DAT

Author: Nancy, PANews

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

As Wall Street turns its attention to Solana, a group of DAT (crypto treasury companies) are gradually entering the market. Could Kyle Samani, co-founder of Multicoin Capital and newly appointed Chairman of SOL Treasury Forward, become the "spokesperson" of Solana DAT? Crypto investment slows, and longtime "ally" Multicoin is assembling its DAT (Data Attribution-Telegram) initiative. Recently, Solana's market has been increasingly bullish, with its price approaching a record high, and the world's largest Solana treasury is taking shape. Recently, global design firm Forward Industries announced a $1.65 billion private placement to launch Solana's financial strategy. This capital influx includes major investors such as Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital, who have pledged over $100 million, as well as participation from numerous investment firms and angel investors. As a core Solana bull, Samani not only co-led the Forward Industries investment through Multicoin, as DAT becomes a key narrative in the new cycle, but also invested an additional $25 million personally and assumed the role of Chairman. Amidst external skepticism about the sustainability of cryptocurrencies, he expressed his confidence in Solana's 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 funding for Solana, 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, reaping 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 boasts a strong track record, publishing articles after each investment to explain the investment rationale and enhance the project's narrative. It's worth noting that Multicoin's recent investment strategy has significantly reduced its investment frequency. In the first half of this year, Multicoin publicly announced only six investment projects, far less than the investment scale of last year's cycle. Since June of this year, Multicoin has not announced any new investment activities. Beneath the surface of calm, Multicoin is brewing a new direction for its DAT strategy. Multicoin, with its years of deep involvement 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 in the Solana ecosystem through its network of investors, a network established since its 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 with different counterparties. Furthermore, leveraging the seniority of its investors, the size of its treasury, and its close ties to the Solana ecosystem, Forward Industries can facilitate transactions with key Solana protocols and applications, enhancing liquidity. Multicoin has stated that its core goal is to increase "SOL per share" through customized strategies and active management of treasury assets. From capital investment to industry debate and DAT strategic planning, Samani has been a constant presence throughout Solana's narrative, considered a key driver. Prior to founding Multicoin, Samani founded Pristine, a health IT startup focused on providing smart glasses solutions for frontline workers. The company not only secured over $5 million in venture capital but was also 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 publication 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 its inception in 2017. This track record has made Samani highly valuable within the industry, even to competitors. Dragonfly partner Hasseb Qureshi once stated, "I don't like 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. In 2016, driven by his vision of smart contracts and permissionless finance, he entered the crypto space and made his first real fortune during ETH's early rally. However, as Ethereum lacked clear progress on scalability, his self-proclaimed confidence gradually waned. He saw 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 eyes, as more users, capital and applications migrate to Solana, this ecosystem will give birth to the big winner of the next cycle.

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

This deep binding also once caused Multicoin to suffer a Waterloo. In 2022, Solana's largest supporter FTX went bankrupt, causing Multicoin's asset size to fall by 55% in two weeks. The loss that year was as high as 91.4%, the worst performance since its establishment. But even so, Multicoin still firmly supports Solana, continues to participate in ecological construction, and has become an important force for Solana's rebirth.

In the latest article, Samani bluntly stated that SOL is the best asset for DAT because of "real returns." He said that SOL can generate real returns through staking. SOL's income comes from organic economic activities and MEV (Maximum Extractable Value). As of September 2025, the average SOL staker yielded 8.05%, of which approximately 6.19% came from inflation and approximately 1.86% from organic economic activity and MEV, with this yield paid approximately every 2.5 days. By comparison, the nominal staking yield on ETH during the same period was approximately 3.21%, of which 2.81% came from inflation, leaving a real yield of only 0.41%. As the foundation of a perpetual capital instrument, this makes SOL a highly attractive asset for DATs. He also pointed out that BTC, lacking both staking and real returns, is completely unsuitable for DATs. This difference makes SOL a natural fit for building DATs. Forward Industries can leverage SOL's real returns to meet its obligations, something BTC DATs simply cannot. However, Samani lacks a Wall Street background, and perhaps his role in the Solana DAT narrative isn't directly comparable to the Wall Street-influenced Michael Saylor or Tom Lee, but more like Sharplink. Joseph Lubin of Gaming was an early and staunch supporter, capital promoter and narrative evangelist.