Forward Industries and cryptocurrency investment firm RockawayX jointly led a strategic investment in OnRe, a startup building reinsurance infrastructure on the Solana blockchain, in a move aimed at moving customary risk transfer markets to decentralized rails.

The companies said Tuesday that they co-led OnRe’s $5 million Series A round, and Forward plans to commit up to $25 million to its profitable platform token on Solana.

The funds will be used to expand the OnRe platform and attract more institutional participants to onchain reinsurance, a niche but emerging segment of decentralized finance.

OnRe is trying to move part of the reinsurance market – where insurers transfer risk to third parties – to blockchain infrastructure, using tokenization and sharp contracts to manage insurance and capital flows.

The initiative reflects a broader push to experiment with real-world financial services, including insurance and reinsurance, on blockchain networks, although adoption remains in its early stages.

According to industry data, Forward Industries (FWDI) is the largest corporate holder of Solana (SOL), with a balance sheet of over SOL 7.01 million. The company’s Nasdaq-listed shares gained about 5.8% during Tuesday’s regular session, according to Yahoo Finance. As it turned out, in the case of after-hours activity, most of this escalate evaporated. SOL last traded at $86.61, up about 2.7%.

Forward Industries’ SOL accumulation over time. Source: CoinGecko

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Blockchain pilot targets inefficiencies in the global reinsurance market

While estimates vary, the global reinsurance market does valuable to over $600 billion, with growth driven by growing demand for risk transfer. Total reinsurance premiums are closer to $2 trillion.

Blockchain-based platforms are being tested as a way to streamline traditionally manual processes by introducing common ledgers for real-time tracking, underwriting and claims settlement.

OnRe is not alone in these efforts. Re, a decentralized reinsurance protocol, is another project that aims to combine institutional capital with collateralized insurance risk while offering tokenized income products.

Other protocols are also emerging to provide insurance and reinsurance protection for decentralized finance applications and sharp contracts, although the sector remains in its early stages and largely experimental.

Efforts are also underway to apply blockchain technology and digital assets to various parts of the insurance value chain. For example, insurance broker Aon tested the utilize of stablecoins to pay insurance premiums.

Tim Fletcher, CEO of Aon’s financial services division, said tokenized assets are likely to be increasingly integrated into customary financial systems.

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