The Man Who Shilled SOL the Loudest Exits the Crypto World
- Core Viewpoint: Kyle Samani, co-founder of cryptocurrency venture capital firm Multicoin Capital, has stepped down from day-to-day management to become an advisor. His investment career is renowned for heavily backing and loudly evangelizing Solana, showcasing both the immense success and risks of contrarian investing. His future interests will expand to cutting-edge fields like AI.
- Key Elements:
- Kyle Samani was an early, heavy investor and core evangelist for Solana. Multicoin led its first three funding rounds, and he publicly declared, "Solana is always the answer."
- The bet on Solana brought massive returns (profits once reached 614,000%) but also led to the fund losing about 91.4% in 2022 due to the FTX incident, highlighting the high-risk, high-reward nature.
- During Solana's downturn, Samani and Multicoin chose to hold firm and increase their investment, eventually "recapturing lost ground" as SOL's price recovered. They also led the investment in Forward Industries, a company with a large SOL holding.
- His investment style is highly controversial (often criticizing Bitcoin and Ethereum) but is praised by some peers (like Dragonfly Capital) as a top-tier non-consensus, contrarian investor.
- Samani emphasizes that his long-term belief in cryptocurrency and Solana remains unchanged. He will continue personal investing and plans to increase his holdings in Forward Industries.
- His future interests will shift towards AI, longevity tech, robotics, and other fields, potentially focusing on investment opportunities arising from new paradigms like "human-assisted AI."
Original | Odaily
Author | Azuma (@azuma_eth)
On February 4 local time, the renowned venture capital firm Multicoin Capital informed its LPs in a letter that co-founder and managing partner Kyle Samani has stepped down from his day-to-day duties and management role at Multicoin, transitioning to an advisory position.
Tushar Jain, the other co-founder of Multicoin, stated that Samani's interests have expanded beyond the cryptocurrency space to frontier areas such as AI, longevity technology, and robotics, leading to his decision to dedicate more time to exploring these emerging technologies.
The Man Who Shilled SOL the Hardest
Since co-founding Multicoin with Tushar in 2017, Samani has been one of the most active investors in the cryptocurrency space, with his most iconic achievement being his aggressive bet on Solana.
Multicoin was one of the earliest venture capital firms to heavily invest in Solana. Between 2018 and 2021, Multicoin led Solana's first three funding rounds, with Samani personally taking on the role of evangelizing Solana to the crypto world. Samani was exceptionally skilled at promoting Solana through high-profile, often provocative comparisons. He publicly criticized Bitcoin for lacking practical utility and Ethereum for its bloated structure and slow scaling, emphasizing "Solana is always the answer" and firmly believing that SOL would outperform BTC and ETH in the long run.
A recent example: yesterday, after Vitalik publicly acknowledged mistakes in Ethereum's Layer 2 historical roadmap, Samani specifically reposted an article he wrote in 2021 comparing Ethereum and Solana's scaling paths, commenting, "This is how the Ethereum strategy failed."
Multicoin's bet on Solana paid off tremendously. In late 2021, during an appearance on The Wolf Of All Streets podcast, Samani stated that the firm had realized an astonishing 614,000% profit from its Solana investments.
However, following the collapse of FTX, the entire Solana ecosystem suffered a severe blow, with SOL plummeting to $8 at one point, plunging the project into its darkest hour. Multicoin's profits saw a massive drawdown as a result — the fund lost approximately 91.4% in 2022, its worst performance since inception.
Yet, Samani and Multicoin demonstrated even greater conviction at this juncture. Instead of abandoning Solana, they doubled down, driven by belief, continuing to evangelize Solana and increasing investments in Solana ecosystem projects. The ultimate outcome was Solana achieving one of the most remarkable comebacks in cryptocurrency history, with Samani and Multicoin "reclaiming lost ground" as SOL recovered.
After the rise of Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs) in 2025, Multicoin, alongside Galaxy Digital and Jump Crypto, co-led a $1.65 billion funding round for DAT company Forward Industries. Forward Industries is now the largest SOL DAT in the market (holding 6.82 million SOL, valued at approximately $626 million), with Samani serving as the Chairman of the company's board.
A Madman in the Eyes of Many, the Best Investor in the Eyes of Peers
Due to Samani's preference for contrarian investments and his highly vocal, often provocative statements, he has always been a controversial figure (primarily within the Ethereum community).
However, in the view of a few VC peers, Samani is the best investor in the entire cryptocurrency space. Dragonfly Capital partner Haseeb Qureshi once stated that as competitors, Dragonfly and Multicoin were often at odds, but experts recognize experts. Investing is like a sport, and Samani has the highest score of all time, unmatched by anyone.
Haseeb added: "That doesn't mean you have to like him. I often find him reckless, even obnoxious. I frequently disagree with him... But Samani is a true contrarian thinker. He bets where others won't... At the end of the day, that's the reason investors exist — to allocate capital to undervalued ideas, and Samani is one of the few non-consensus investors in our industry."
Personal Statement: Not Leaving the Space Entirely
Following the release of Multicoin's letter to LPs, Samani personally addressed his career change on X.
Samani emphasized that his belief in cryptocurrency and Solana remains unchanged — "After nearly a decade in the crypto industry, I am more convinced than ever that crypto will fundamentally reshape the financial system. I believe the Clarity Act will bring a tidal wave of new participants, unleashing an unprecedented wave of applications. I remain long-term bullish on crypto, especially the Solana ecosystem, and plan to continue making personal investments in the space while supporting companies in Multicoin's portfolio."
Furthermore, although he will gradually step back from Multicoin, Samani will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board at Forward Industries. Additionally, Samani mentioned his intention to submit a redemption request to the Multicoin master fund by March 31, 2026. However, he will not request cash redemption but will opt for an in-kind redemption using Forward Industries shares and warrants, significantly increasing his personal exposure to Forward Industries.
Exploring Future Directions
Multicoin's letter to LPs mentioned several new areas of interest for Samani — AI, longevity technology, and robotics.
While it's not yet clear which specific opportunities Samani is eyeing (he indicated he would take a brief break), yesterday he reposted an article by another Multicoin partner, Shayon, titled "Inverting the Human-Agent Relationship". The core thesis of the article is that instead of pondering "what AI can assist humans with," a more economically impactful direction is "how humans should assist AI," and what new investment opportunities will arise from this shift in mindset.
Interested readers can read the original article, which may serve as a window into Samani's future thinking.
