Solana news: Solana Attracts Institutional Finance as Memecoin Image Fades
Institutional Adoption on the Rise
Solana is undergoing a significant transformation, moving beyond its earlier association with memecoins. According to a recent Messari report, major Wall Street and payment firms are increasingly utilising Solana for tokenised funds and global payments, even as the broader cryptocurrency market shows signs of cooling.
Growth in Tokenised Assets
The report highlights a 43% quarter-over-quarter increase in Solana’s real-world asset market capitalisation, reaching $2.01 billion. This growth is largely attributed to BlackRock’s tokenised money market fund, BUIDL, which expanded to $525.4 million on Solana following custody support from Anchorage Digital. By the end of the quarter, Anchorage held approximately 81% of BUIDL’s supply on the network.
Traditional Finance Integration
Several established financial institutions have expanded their activities on Solana. Ondo Finance launched over 200 tokenised stocks and ETFs through Ondo Global Markets, while Franklin Templeton partnered with Ondo to bring tokenised ETF products onchain. Citigroup, in collaboration with PwC, completed a proof-of-concept for tokenised trade finance using Solana.
Payments and Stablecoins
Payment firms such as Visa, Stripe, Worldpay, Western Union, and PayPal have either integrated Solana for stablecoin settlements or introduced Solana-native payment products. Solana’s low transaction fees and rapid settlement times have made it an appealing choice for payment infrastructure. At the end of the quarter, Solana’s stablecoin market capitalisation stood at $14.85 billion, ranking third among blockchains. Adjusted stablecoin transfer volume increased by 13% to $246.8 billion.
Resilient Onchain Activity
Despite declining cryptocurrency prices, Solana’s onchain activity remained stable. The network’s total application revenue, referred to as “Chain GDP” by Messari, was approximately $342.2 million for the quarter.
Technical Developments and Future Outlook
Messari noted a shift in the nature of activity on Solana, with increased adoption of high-speed trading infrastructure known as “Prop AMMs.” These are beginning to outperform centralised exchanges in execution quality and trading costs. The upcoming Alpenglow upgrade is expected to reduce transaction finality times from 12.8 seconds to around 150 milliseconds, potentially strengthening Solana’s role in payments, tokenised finance, and AI-driven applications.
Solana’s evolving ecosystem suggests a move towards becoming a foundational infrastructure for institutional finance and global payments, moving past its earlier reputation centred on speculative trading and memecoins.
