Solana Treasury Companies in 2026: Teams, Jobs and mNAV
Solana treasury companies hold 18.6M SOL, but most trade below NAV. Who is growing, who is struggling, where the jobs are and what investors should watch.
By Solana Teams · · 5 min read
A year ago, putting SOL on a public company's balance sheet was the hottest trade in crypto. Today the picture is more honest. Twelve listed companies hold about 18.64 million SOL, roughly 3.16% of circulating supply and worth about $1.78 billion at the end of October, according to DefiLlama's Solana treasury tracker. But most of them trade below the value of the SOL they own.
That sounds like bad news. I think it's the most useful moment to look at this sector, because the hype has gone and you can now see which teams are building real businesses. If you're job hunting or investing in Solana, here's what's actually happening.
The big five, in plain numbers
Forward Industries (FWDI): the giant that keeps stacking
Forward is the clear leader. Its fiscal Q4 update shows 8,501,298 SOL at 30 September, up 948,601 in a single quarter and about 1.4% of circulating supply. The number I care about more is SOL per fully diluted share, which rose from 0.0730 to 0.0806, about 10% in a quarter.
It isn't free money. Institutional debt rose from $105 million to $167.5 million, cash dropped to about $7.3 million, and fully diluted mNAV was 0.946x at quarter end. Forward was launched with backing from Galaxy Digital and Jump Crypto, and it put about a quarter of its SOL to work through fwdSOL, a liquid staking token built with Sanctum. Sanctum's page shows around 1.54 million SOL staked in fwdSOL.
DeFi Development Corp (DFDV): the scrappy compounder
DFDV was the first US listed company built around SOL. It held about 2.59 million SOL on 16 October and funds buying through a $300 million at-the-market programme for its CHAD preferred stock, whose annual dividend steps up from $1.30 to $1.40 on 2 November. It runs its own validators and its own Sanctum-built token, dfdvSOL. The long-term goal is bold: 1.0 SOL per share by December 2028.
The stock is volatile. Shares fell about 21% in the week to 12 October even as holdings grew. CEO Joseph Onorati's answer was simple: "Short-term volatility has not changed our conviction or our commitment to accumulating SOL."
Upexi (UPXI): the warning sign
Upexi holds 2,340,150 SOL, bought at an average of $154, with about 95% staked. Staking added roughly 135,000 SOL over its financial year, which is the good part. The hard part is a $246.1 million net loss, mostly unrealised losses on SOL, and negative stockholders' equity of $53.8 million. It did cut the rate on its BitGo credit line from 11.5% to 7.5%. DefiLlama puts its mNAV around 0.28x.
Solana Company (HSDT): Pantera's vehicle
Solana Company is managed by Pantera with Summer Capital. It reported 2.3 million SOL and a NAV of $278 million on 24 September, and raised $15 million at a 5% premium to NAV. A raise above NAV, even a small one, is exactly what this model needs to work.
SOL Strategies (STKE): the operator, not the hoarder
This is the one I find most interesting for careers. SOL Strategies keeps a smaller treasury of about 460,000 SOL, but it runs validators with around 3.4 million SOL under delegation, including white-label nodes for Solana Mobile and Pudgy Penguins. In June it bought the swap aggregator Houdini Swap, and one month of Houdini fees (about C$1.2 million) beat its staking income for the whole quarter. It also shut its Sui and Monad validators to focus on Solana.
What mNAV tells you, and why it matters
mNAV compares a company's market value with the value of the SOL it holds. Above 1.0, the company can sell shares and buy more SOL per share than before. Below 1.0, every new share it sells shrinks what existing holders own. That's why so many of these companies have turned to debt, preferred stock and buybacks instead.
My take: the pure "buy and hold" story is mostly done. The companies that will earn a premium again are the ones that act like Solana businesses. They run validators, issue their own staking tokens, lend and earn real fees. Forward, DFDV and SOL Strategies are all moving that way. That's a healthy shift.
Where the jobs are
Treasury companies themselves are lean. They hire a handful of people in capital markets, investor relations, legal and finance. Forward, for example, advertised a Legal and Administrative Operations Manager to support its growing legal team. If you have public-markets or fund experience, these are rare roles where crypto knowledge and Wall Street skills meet.
The bigger hiring story is around them:
- Staking infrastructure. Every treasury needs validators, liquid staking and risk work. Sanctum powers fwdSOL and dfdvSOL, and validator operators like SOL Strategies are winning white-label deals.
- Institutional growth. The Solana Foundation is hiring an Institutional Growth Marketing Lead in New York, an Institutional Growth Lead for Greater China and a Head of RWA, according to its jobs board.
- Wallets and custody. Wallet makers like Exodus, which also keeps a small SOL position on its own balance sheet, and the custodians that look after treasury SOL need people who understand both compliance and on-chain operations.
Practical advice: learn how staking yield, liquid staking tokens and validator economics actually work, then learn to explain them to a CFO. That combination is scarce. Building in public through Superteam bounties is still one of the fastest ways to prove it.
What investors should watch
This isn't financial advice, but here's my short checklist:
- SOL per share, not SOL held. Growth in total SOL means little if share count grows faster.
- mNAV trend. A move back above 1.0 reopens accretive raises. Below it, watch for buybacks.
- Debt and preferred costs. Forward's debt grew about 60% in a quarter. DFDV's CHAD dividend is rising. Both need SOL to cooperate.
- Real operating income. Staking, validator commission and fees like Houdini's are what separate a business from a leveraged fund.
- Cost basis. Upexi bought at $154 and Solana Company's average is around $220, per CoinGecko. That gap matters if SOL stays near $95.
I'm optimistic overall. These companies own around 3% of Solana's supply, they stake most of it, and the best of them are becoming real infrastructure players. That's good for the network and creates jobs that didn't exist two years ago. Just pick the operators over the hoarders.
What to do next
- Browse every company we track on the Solana Teams directory, including the staking teams and data and analytics teams.
- Read the source numbers yourself on DefiLlama and Forward's treasury page.
- Building a Solana team, or running a treasury, validator or staking business? List your team on Solana Teams so job seekers and investors can find you.
