Forward Industries Strikes Out Again as HSDT Rejects Third All-Stock Bid for Solana Treasury

Forward Industries (NASDAQ: FWDI) has now had acquisition proposals rejected or ignored by all three Solana digital asset treasury companies it approached in under two weeks, after the board of Solana Company (NASDAQ: HSDT) turned down an all-stock offer on June 12 without entering discussions, and SkyAI (NASDAQ: SKYA) let a simultaneous deadline pass without responding.

The twin rebuffs follow Brera Holdings' rejection of a similar FWDI proposal on June 6, which Compass covered when it was announced. Three proposals, three non-starters, in eleven days.

The HSDT Offer and Its Rejection

Forward's bid for HSDT offered 0.386 newly issued FWDI shares per HSDT share, valuing the stock at $1.63, a 10% premium to HSDT's prior closing price of $1.48. Had the deal closed, the combined entity would have held approximately 9 million SOL (SOL): Forward's roughly 6.9 million plus HSDT's approximately 2.06 million.

HSDT's board declined without engaging. Forward expressed frustration in a public statement: "We are disappointed and surprised that the HSDT board has chosen to reject Forward's offer without any discussion."

The SkyAI proposal, also structured as an all-stock combination, received no reply before Forward's stated June 12 deadline.

The Structural Problem Behind the Pattern

Forward's consolidation rationale is straightforward on paper. SOL's decline to the $74–85 range, against FWDI's average acquisition cost of roughly $232 per token, has pushed the company's paper losses past $1 billion. Smaller competitors holding a few million SOL each face similar mNAV compression, which in theory makes them cheaper to absorb and creates a case for shared scale.

Forward has said as much publicly: "We believe the current market environment necessitates cooperation and strategic action to deliver on promises made to our shareholders."

But the all-stock structure undercuts that logic for the targets. HSDT and Brera shareholders would not receive cash or SOL; they would be exchanging direct token exposure for equity in FWDI, a company whose own shares trade at a significant discount to its SOL book value. Accepting that trade means giving up a known position in SOL itself for indirect exposure filtered through FWDI's capital structure, unrealized losses, and whatever dilution comes with the new share issuance.

The HSDT board's decision to reject the offer without negotiating suggests it did not view FWDI's equity as adequate compensation for that exchange, regardless of the headline premium.

Forward's Position in the DAT Sector

Forward Industries assembled its SOL treasury through a $1.65 billion private investment in public equity deal closed in September 2025, with participation from Galaxy Digital (Galaxy Digital), Jump Crypto (Jump Crypto), and Multicoin Capital. It now holds more than 7 million SOL staked through validator infrastructure and has launched a liquid staking token called fwdSOL for use in Solana protocols.

That holding makes Forward the largest single holder among publicly traded Solana DAT companies. The broader sector collectively holds approximately 15.4 million SOL, meaning Forward controls a majority of all DAT-sector tokens on its own. Competitors like DeFi Development Corp. (DeFi Development Corp.), HSDT, Brera, and SkyAI each hold roughly 2 million SOL or fewer.

The consolidation push comes alongside Forward's planned $4 billion at-the-market equity program and an anticipated Russell 2000/3000 index inclusion.

Three Targets, Three Rejections

The Brera proposal offered 1.54 FWDI shares per SLMT share, representing a 30.7% premium, and was declined without negotiation. SkyAI's proposal terms were not separately disclosed, and the company has not made any public statement about the approach.

What the three rejections share is the absence of any engagement. None of the target boards entered discussions, requested revised terms, or named a counteroffer. That collective silence is the clearest signal available that the sector does not currently view consolidation under FWDI as preferable to operating independently, even under the pressure of compressed SOL valuations.

Forward has not announced whether it plans additional bids, revised terms, or a change in strategy.

Correction policy: If any figures in this article require updating as new information becomes available, Solana Compass will note the change inline.