SkyAI

SkyAI is liquidating half its Solana treasury, worth roughly $100 million, to fund a $201 million share buyback and block a takeover from rival Solana treasury company Forward Industries. The move signals a shift in strategy for a firm that built its identity around accumulating SOL, and leaves institutional holders facing a binary choice: exit at $3.00 per share in cash, or stay invested in a company with half its treasury gone and no clear path back to treasury-focused operations.

• SkyAI has sold approximately 1 million SOL, half its holdings, reducing its treasury from over 2 million SOL to about 1 million SOL.
• The $201 million buyback at $3.00 per share is more than double the $1.55 per share Forward Industries offered on June 15, and exceeds Forward’s September 15 bid of $2.13 per share.
• The tender offer begins on or about October 15 and will run for 10 business days, conditioned on SOL remaining above $100 and at least 50% of each share class tendering.

• $201M Total buyback budget, same as estimated value of 1 million SOL at September pricing
• 1M SOL Remaining treasury after sales, down from over 2 million SOL in September
• $3.00 Buyback price per share, compared to $6.50 per unit paid by early investors

SkyAI announced a $201 million tender offer to buy back up to 95 percent of its common stock and warrants at $3.00 per share, according to reporting by Cryptopolitan. The company is funding the offer by selling roughly half its Solana holdings, approximately 1 million SOL, leaving it with about 1 million SOL on hand as of October 12. SkyAI controlled the fifth-largest Solana treasury among public companies, valued at approximately $207 million in September, and had booked more than $12 million in staking revenue through June 30 on a validator yielding 6.01 percent against a network average of 5.57 percent. The move explicitly rejects a takeover bid from Forward Industries, which positions itself as the largest Solana treasury company with reported holdings of 8.5 million SOL.

SkyAI rejects Forward’s improved bid with higher cash offer

Forward Industries first approached SkyAI in June with an offer of 0.367 Forward shares per SkyAI share, valuing the company at approximately $1.55 per share, a 20 percent premium at the time. SkyAI rejected the offer. On September 15, Forward increased its bid to 0.306 shares per SkyAI share, raising the valuation to about $2.13 per share, roughly a 50 percent premium that month.

SkyAI’s board rejected that bid as well, concluding it undervalued the company.

The $3.00 cash tender offer exceeds both Forward proposals in nominal terms and avoids the risk of stock-for-stock consideration. At SkyAI’s September 18 annual meeting, Forward attempted to influence the vote, but all five directors retained their seats despite receiving more withheld votes than votes in favor; SkyAI’s voting rules require only a plurality.

Shareholders also voted down the company’s proposed equity incentive plan by a margin of 22.5 million to 5 million shares.

Treasury liquidation signals retreat from Solana accumulation strategy

An SEC-filed press release shows that in August 2025, when the company was still operating as Sharps Technology, it closed a $400 million private placement at $6.50 per unit, with units comprising common stock plus attached warrants. The offering could raise up to $1 billion in aggregate gross proceeds if all warrants were exercised. The company stated it would use net proceeds primarily to acquire SOL in the open market to establish treasury operations, backed by a syndicate of financial institutions and digital asset investors including ParaFi, Pantera, Monarq, FalconX, Phoenix Digital, Bastion Trading, and Primitive Ventures.

Now, roughly fifteen months later, SkyAI is dismantling that treasury to fund a buyback of its own stock rather than continue accumulating SOL.

The company said it may continue selling SOL depending on market conditions, meaning the $1 million remaining could decline further.

This represents a fundamental strategic pivot: early investors paid $6.50 per unit for equity plus warrants on the strength of a treasury-building mission; the company is now returning $3.00 per share in cash to exit shareholders and cutting its Solana exposure in half.

The move leaves open the question of what SkyAI intends to do with the SOL proceeds beyond funding the buyback and whether it plans to maintain treasury operations at all post-offer.

Tender offer conditions create execution risk for the $3.00 price

SkyAI expects to commence the tender offer on or about October 15 (Thursday) and will run it for 10 business days. The offer covers up to 46.37 million shares and up to 20.72 million pre-funded and strategic advisor warrants.

Two material conditions attach: at least 50 percent of each class of shares and warrants must be tendered for the offer to proceed, and the price of SOL must remain above $100 throughout the offer period.

SOL traded near $111 on October 11.

SkyAI says the offer does not depend on external financing, since its cash and digital assets already exceed the maximum $201 million it could spend. The company has hired MacKenzie Partners to handle shareholder information and collect tendered shares. Official offer documents are due to be filed with the SEC by October 15.

If SOL drops below $100 before the offer closes, or if fewer than half of either security class tenders, the offer will likely fail, forcing SkyAI back to defending against Forward or restructuring its board and treasury strategy.

The CCS read. We read this as a sign that SkyAI’s treasury strategy has failed to generate value commensurate with early investors’ expectations. A firm that raised $400 million on the premise of becoming a Solana accumulator is now liquidating to pay its own shareholders to leave. That reveals either that the Solana treasury thesis itself was oversold, or that SkyAI’s execution was poor enough to require emergency capital redeployment. Either way, institutional holders betting on treasury-as-strategy should treat the October 15 tender as a liquidity event, not a bottoming opportunity.

The offer period begins Thursday, October 15, and runs for 10 business days; SkyAI must file final offer documents with the SEC by that date. The condition that SOL stay above $100 and that at least half of each security class tender will determine whether the $3.00 price holds or whether the company faces a failed offer and renewed pressure from Forward Industries.