Western Union, Visa, PayPal, Meta: Why Major Payments Giants Are Racing to Solana

Summary

Kyle Samani discusses Forward's investment in Henry reinsurance RWA on Solana, highlights Solana's dominance in institutional payments and tokenized assets, and argues that bear markets create the best investment opportunities. He also warns that Ethereum L2s are struggling and that most altcoins are bleeding out, with consolidation toward Solana and Bitcoin.

• Forward invests in Henry, a reinsurance RWA yielding 12-13% on Solana, using a Galaxy debt facility at 3.5%.
• Solana is becoming the preferred blockchain for payments (Visa, PayPal, Western Union, Meta) and tokenized equities/RWAs.
• DTCC plans a tokenized equities pilot in July 2026, with SEC guidance encouraging onchain securities.
• Kyle Samani is building a prop market maker for longtail crypto assets using Claude Code.
• Agentic payments and stablecoin settlement are expected to accelerate capital turnover significantly.
• Ethereum L2s are losing activity and only Base has a case, but it is a corporate chain limiting adoption.
• Most altcoins are bleeding out and the market is consolidating into Solana and Bitcoin.
• The current bear market is viewed as a prime opportunity for crypto investment.