Forward Industries / Galaxy: a 0.6% discretionary management mandate with a separate services-agreement fee stack.
Forward Industries' agreement with Galaxy Digital Capital Management is a useful same-role comparator for digital asset treasury management economics: a disclosed discretionary mandate, a 0.6% annual AUM fee, expense reimbursement and a three-year initial term. A separate Galaxy services agreement carried materially different monthly economics and must not be blended into the asset-management fee.
Asset-management agreement snapshot
| Field | Publicly disclosed term |
|---|---|
| Effective date | September 10, 2025 |
| Provider | Galaxy Digital Capital Management LP |
| Role | Discretionary investment management over broadly defined Treasury Assets, subject to stated carve-outs |
| Custody | Galaxy was disclosed as not authorized to act as custodian or take title to the assets |
| Management fee | 0.60% per year of the value of managed account assets |
| Expenses | Reasonable documented account-operating expenses reimbursable by the company under the disclosed arrangement |
| Initial term | Three years from September 2025 |
| Renewal | Successive one-year periods unless either party gives at least 90 days' written notice of non-renewal |
Role normalization makes this comparator useful
The filed agreement describes discretionary investment management of cash, cash equivalents, stablecoins, cryptocurrency and other investible assets, while excluding specified asset categories. That makes the mandate materially different from a narrow strategic-advisory engagement or a software / custody-only relationship.
For fee benchmarking, that role definition matters as much as the 0.6% rate. A percentage can only be compared cleanly after scope, authority and denominator are normalized.
The separate Galaxy Services Agreement is a different contract family
Forward also entered into a separate services agreement with Galaxy Digital LP for operational, financial and human-resources support related to the inception of the digital-assets treasury business. The June 30, 2026 Form 10-Q presents that arrangement separately as a related-party services agreement.
From September 2025 through March 2026, Forward disclosed approximately $583,000 per month under the Services Agreement. In March 2026, the parties extended it through June 10 and reduced the monthly fee to $100,000; the Services Agreement then expired according to its terms. Forward disclosed $233,000 of expense for the June quarter and $3.39 million for the nine months ended June 30 under that services arrangement.
The latest filings confirm the asset-management agreement remained economically live
Forward's 2026 filings continued to describe the Galaxy asset-management agreement. The company's proxy statement disclosed approximately $2.23 million of management fees through December 31, 2025, and a June 30, 2026 quarterly filing disclosed $133,000 due to Galaxy under the asset-management agreement at that date.
Why this belongs in a same-role fee set
The Forward / Galaxy asset-management record is useful because it combines a clear discretionary role, a disclosed annual AUM rate, a bounded initial term and later-period expense evidence. It can therefore serve as a cleaner same-role comparator than strategic-advisory or financing-linked arrangements whose economics are primarily warrant-based or embedded in a broader transaction.
What this case contributes to a DAT provider benchmark
It shows the value of separating manager role, custody role, fee basis, expense pass-throughs, term and renewal mechanics. It also shows why multiple contracts with the same provider group should be mapped independently before any total-cost or renegotiation conclusion is drawn.
Primary public sources
Forward / Galaxy Asset Management Agreement (SEC exhibit)
Forward September 2025 Form 8-K
Forward 2026 proxy statement
Forward Form 10-Q for June 30, 2026 — asset management + separate services-agreement currentness
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