Ethereum and Solana Treasury Firms Enter Russell Indexes

SharpLink Gaming and Forward Industries are set to join the Russell indexes on June 29. The two companies, which hold large treasuries of Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL), are making history as the first major crypto treasury firms holding non-Bitcoin assets to enter the indexes.

The inclusion in the Russell indexes is expected to increase institutional visibility for both companies and potentially generate automated inflows from passive index-tracking funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Approximately $12.2 trillion in investor assets are benchmarked against the Russell US indexes, according to FTSE Russell.

SharpLink holds 868,699 ETH, valued at approximately $1.8 billion, making it the second-largest public Ethereum treasury company behind BitMine Immersion Technologies. The firm has not reported any new ETH purchases since October 2024 and also stakes and deploys ETH into on-chain yield strategies to grow returns over time.

SharpLink CEO Joseph Chalom said the Russell inclusion validates the company's institutional ETH treasury approach and could strengthen its access to capital markets. Chairman Joseph Lubin, who backed the company through a Consensys-led private placement, has argued that equities, Treasurys, and ETFs could eventually migrate on-chain through tokenization.

Forward Industries holds approximately $585 million in Solana (SOL), making it the largest public SOL treasury company. The company said the Russell inclusion supports its goal of growing SOL-per-share over time. Forward raised $1.65 billion in a Galaxy Digital-led private placement in September 2025 to establish its Solana treasury strategy.