NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Forward Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: FWDI) (“Forward Industries” or the "Company"), today announced a strategic partnership with Sanctum to launch fwdSOL, a new liquid staking token (LST) that enables the Company to generate staking yield on SOL while unlocking additional sources of return through DeFi and institutional borrowing strategies.

Through the partnership, SOL delegated by Forward Industries to Sanctum will be represented by approximately 1,725,100 fwdSOL, corresponding to 25% of the Company’s SOL holdings. By converting staked SOL into fwdSOL, Forward Industries can continue earning native staking yield while deploying the LST across a range of on-chain opportunities to enhance performance. These include using fwdSOL as collateral to borrow assets, which can then be allocated into vetted DeFi protocols or revenue-generating strategies with the Company’s institutional partners.

As a part of the partnership, Forward has the opportunity to add CLOUD to its holdings and potentially purchase more from Sanctum in the future.

“This initiative demonstrates our commitment to unlocking the full potential of our SOL holdings,” said Kyle Samani, Chairman of Forward Industries. “Liquid staking with Sanctum gives us more flexibility and efficiency in deploying capital, going beyond passive staking to capture incremental sources of yield responsibly, while maintaining liquidity. The launch of fwdSOL marks another milestone in our mission to build a robust, optimized, and transparent treasury strategy for the digital asset economy.”

“Forward Industries’ adoption of liquid staking as a core component of its strategy validates our view that LSTs are the essential first step for institutions aiming to earn yield on their SOL,” said FP Lee, Co-Founder & CEO of Sanctum. “Forward Industries’ active, institutional approach to treasury management showcases exactly how liquid staking can power more sophisticated on-chain strategies, keeping SOL liquid for free deployment across DeFi. This partnership reflects a shared commitment to securing the Solana network while keeping SOL active throughout the ecosystem.”

About Forward Industries
Forward Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: FWDI) is a global design company serving top tier medical and technology companies. For over 60 years the company has been successful in developing and producing a portfolio of outstanding products for some of the world’s leading companies and brands. In September 2025, Forward Industries initiated a Solana treasury strategy dedicated to acquiring SOL and increasing SOL-per-share through bespoke strategies and active management of the company’s treasury. The Company’s Solana treasury strategy is supported by industry leading investors and operating partners, including Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital. For more information on the Company’s Solana treasury strategy, visit forwardindustries.com.

About Sanctum
Sanctum is the leading infrastructure powering Solana’s largest LSTs, validators, and apps. Its Infinity shared liquidity pool has enabled the creation of over 1,000 LSTs while providing leading returns on staked SOL to pool depositors who hold INF. Through Staking-as-a-Service, Sanctum helps top brands launch their own LSTs and white-label validators with turnkey staking, liquidity, and operational support. Sanctum also provides Gateway, a Transaction Processing Gateway (TPG) that gives teams full control over how their transactions are simulated, fee-budgeted, routed, and delivered on Solana. To learn more, visit sanctum.so.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of words such as “anticipate,” “expect,” “plan,” “could,” “may,” “will,” “believe,” “estimate,” “forecast,” “goal,” “project,” and other words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements address various matters including statements relating to the Company’s plan for value creation and strategic advantages, market size and growth opportunities. Each forward-looking statement contained in this press release is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statement. Applicable risks and uncertainties include, among others, failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the transactions and the proposed digital asset treasury strategy; changes in business, market, financial, political and regulatory conditions; risks relating to the Company’s operations and business, including the highly volatile nature of the price of Solana and other cryptocurrencies; the risk that the price of the Company’s common stock may be highly correlated to the price of the digital assets that it holds; risks related to increased competition in the industries and markets in which the Company does and will operate (including the applicable digital assets market); risks relating to significant legal, commercial, regulatory and technical uncertainty regarding digital assets generally; risks relating to the treatment of crypto assets for U.S. and foreign tax purposes, as well as those risks and uncertainties identified in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date of this document, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of these statements.

Contacts

Media:
Carissa Felger / Sam Cohen
Gasthalter & Co.
(212) 257-4170
Forward@gasthalter.com

Investor Relations:
Sean Mansouri, CFA / Aaron D’Souza
Elevate IR
(720) 330-2829
ir@forwardindustries.com