Backpack US Appoints Kyle Samani to Board
Backpack announced that Kyle Samani, co-founder of Multicoin Capital and early investor in Solana, has joined the Backpack US board of directors. CEO Armani Ferrante stated that Samani's deep involvement in decentralized networks and long-standing advocacy for clear regulatory frameworks aligns with the company's compliance-first, chain-native, and user-centric strategy.
Samani expressed that the future of global capital markets is not about DeFi versus traditional finance, but rather about combining institutional-level risk control with on-chain efficiency and transparency, and he has been impressed with the team since day one. The company also emphasized the launch of what it claims to be the world's first real U.S. stock trading available 24/7, with underlying assets including SpaceX, Micron, SanDisk, and SK Hynix, and is expanding tokenized stocks and unified margin accounts backed by stocks for perpetual trading.
Public records show that Samani will step down from his management role at Multicoin in February 2026, stating he will explore areas such as artificial intelligence, longevity, and robotics, but remains bullish on crypto, especially Solana, and will continue to invest in and support portfolio projects in a personal capacity. He will remain on the board of the fully homomorphic encryption project Zama and continue as chairman of Forward Industries' board.
When exiting the fund, he plans to request a physical redemption of Multicoin's main fund shares in Forward Industries stock and warrants rather than cash, to increase his personal exposure to the SOL treasury company. Forward completed a private placement of approximately $1.65 billion in September 2025, with participation from Multicoin, Galaxy Digital, and Jump Crypto; by early 2026, it held nearly 6.98 million SOL, almost all of which was staked. At that time, Multicoin managed approximately $6 billion, with day-to-day operations handled by partners such as Tushar Jain and Brian Smith.
The Backpack US board previously included former SEC commissioner and acting chairman Michael S. Piwowar. The company positions this appointment within its strategy for U.S. expansion and bridging traditional and digital asset infrastructures, stating that both parties jointly believe that institutional risk control and on-chain markets will converge.
In market mechanics, the buyer seeks to obtain Solana ecosystem endorsements and tokenized stock trading channels on regulated U.S. entities, while the seller is a former venture capitalist who allocates personal branding and regulatory connections to licensed platforms. The driving force is U.S. compliance expansion and 24-hour stock products, rather than a new round of fund raising. Capital and influence are shifting from venture capital decision-making seats to brokerage and securities infrastructure boards. The beneficiary is Backpack US, which needs policy language and institutional clients, while the pressured party is other exchanges that still view the same batch of Solana fundamentalist capital as neutral advisors.
Source: Public Information
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Kyle Samani, after co-founding Multicoin with Tushar Jain, made headlines with his early bet on Solana, advocating for "increased bandwidth and reduced latency." Following the FTX collapse, when SOL briefly fell below $10, he maintained a bullish stance and participated in turning Forward Industries into a publicly listed SOL treasury, before stepping down from daily management in February 2026, requesting to redeem fund shares for FWDI stock instead of cash. This path involves first concentrating fund chips, then tying personal balance sheets to a publicly listed company with the same asset, and finally entering the board of a regulated trading platform. His board seat at Zama retains another line in the crypto tech sector. The so-called consideration of leaving crypto was later deleted; the actual outcome is a change of seats, not an exit.
The capital movement shifts from redeemable fund equity to occupying governance rights at exchanges. Backpack aims to use him to demonstrate "institutional risk control combined with on-chain efficiency," providing narratives for 24/7 trading of SpaceX and memory chip stocks, as well as stock-backed perpetuals. The motivation is that U.S. licensing expansion requires someone who understands Solana and can articulate the Clarity Act; the strategy is to transform the venture capitalist network into brokerage clients and market-making relationships. Piwowar provides regulatory experience, while Samani offers ecological appeal, together pushing Backpack from a crypto exchange to a securities platform.
Comparable examples include Coinbase hiring traditional finance directors, Robinhood rolling out tokenized stocks, and Jump and Galaxy deeply embedding into Solana's infrastructure. Samani simultaneously chairs Forward, serves as a director at Zama, and is on the board of Backpack US, transitioning from venture capital expansion to controlling entry points: the entry is no longer token issuance, but who can trade crypto and stocks simultaneously while being licensed in the U.S.
This is a reconstruction of the industry chain. The exit from venture capital is not about selling SOL for fiat, but placing people in the clearing and brokerage layers. The mechanism at play is that fund cycles end and liquidity is needed; publicly listed treasuries provide stock-shaped exposure, while licensed exchanges offer the next fee-generating layer. After reconstruction, pricing power partially shifts from public chain block space to platforms that can hold stocks, tokens, and margin in the same account.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
Exiting a fund often means switching to a chair closer to trading.
Regulatory experience combined with ecological appeal is what sells license premiums.
Once assets are on-chain, the competition is for account entry points.