Solana Institute President Spotlights Key Trend Driving Crypto Growth

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.

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.