---
title: "Solana Institute President Spotlights Key Trend Driving Crypto Growth"
description: "Kristin Smith, president of Solana Institute, highlights a growing trend in the crypto market: Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs). These companies are integrating digital assets into their core strategie"
type: "news"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/258195796.md"
published_at: "2025-09-20T14:22:00.000Z"
---

# Solana Institute President Spotlights Key Trend Driving Crypto Growth

> Kristin Smith, president of Solana Institute, highlights a growing trend in the crypto market: Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs). These companies are integrating digital assets into their core strategies, actively deploying tokens rather than merely holding them. Recent weeks have seen a surge in Solana-focused DATs, including DeFi Dev Corp and Upexi. Nasdaq-listed Forward Industries has become Solana's first billion-dollar treasury, acquiring 6.82 million SOL. Smith suggests that this trend reflects increasing acceptance of cryptocurrencies and innovative financial vehicles like DATs are emerging to channel capital effectively.

In a recent tweet, president of Solana Institute and former CEO of Blockchain Association, Kristin Smith, highlights a new trend driving growth in the crypto market: DAT or Digital Asset Treasury.

In light of growing adoption for cryptocurrencies, DATs have emerged, which are companies making digital assets a core balance-sheet strategy, actively deploying tokens (staking, validators, liquidity) rather than simply holding them.

The emergence of crypto ETFs and digital asset treasury (DAT) companies might reflect crypto’s growing acceptance.

> 1/ We’re seeing an explosion of @Solana-focused Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) companies — giving everyday investors new pathways to access Solana.
> 
> 🧵
> 
> Sep 19, 2025

Smith points to an increasing trend of companies exploring Solana as a digital treasury asset: "We’re seeing an explosion of Solana focused Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) companies — giving everyday investors new pathways to access Solana."

**Solana DATs on rise**

Kristin Smith, the president of Solana Institute, pointed out that the past few weeks have seen multiple Solana DATs launch. These include DeFi Dev Corp and Upexi, which has chosen Solana as its treasury reserve asset.

Nasdaq-listed SOL Strategies joins this list as an institutional bridge to Solana, connecting traditional finance and crypto through institutional-grade validators.

Forward Industries (FORD) is Solana’s first billion-dollar publicly traded treasury. FORD became the largest SOL treasury earlier this week after acquiring 6.82 million SOL, representing 1.26% of the total supply.

This week, Nasdaq-listed Helius in partnership with Pantera Capital and Summer Capital announced over $500 million in funding to launch a SOL treasury company.

According to Smith, this might just be the beginning as innovative vehicles like DATs are emerging, channeling capital to where it is most productive.

### Related Stocks

- [UPXI.US - Upexi](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/UPXI.US.md)
- [FORD.US - Forward Industries](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/FORD.US.md)
- [FWDI.US - Forward Industries](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/FWDI.US.md)

## Related News & Research

| Title | Description | URL |
|-------|-------------|-----|
| Upexi misses Q2 revenue expectations, net loss widens on unrealized losses on digital assets | Upexi reported Q2 revenue of $8.1 million, missing analyst expectations of $9.42 million, despite a 126% year-over-year  | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275515060.md) |
| Upexi Inc. Q2 gross profit rises 126% to USD 6.7 million | Upexi Inc. reported a 126% increase in Q2 gross profit to USD 6.7 million, with total revenue of USD 8.1 million. Digita | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275513939.md) |
| Solana: Is 3.3K TPS strength masking SOL’s weak protocol revenue? | Solana (SOL) leads in transaction volume, processing 3,300 TPS and 285 million daily transactions, significantly outpaci | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275949181.md) |
| Solana’s divergence explained – Is SOL undervalued or not? | Solana (SOL) has seen a 31% pullback in 2026, despite strong on-chain metrics and a DeFi total value locked (TVL) reachi | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275995315.md) |
| Multicoin: Soalna ACE Mechanism Explained and Its DeFi Applications | The article discusses the ACE (Application-Controlled Execution) mechanism introduced in the Solana ecosystem, which all | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275572694.md) |

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> **Disclaimer**: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.