Solana news: Solana Sheds Memecoin Image as Major Banks Move Billions to Its Ecosystem
Institutional Adoption Accelerates
Solana is moving beyond its former reputation as a memecoin hub, as leading financial institutions and payment giants quietly transfer billions to its ecosystem. According to a recent Messari report, the first quarter saw continued interest from institutional finance and payment firms, even as the broader cryptocurrency market cooled.
Growth in Tokenised Assets
Messari highlighted a 43% quarter-on-quarter increase in the market capitalisation of real-world assets on Solana, reaching $2.01 billion. This growth was driven by the tokenised money market fund BUIDL, developed by BlackRock and Securitize, which expanded to $525.4 million after Anchorage Digital added custody support. Anchorage held approximately 81% of the asset's supply on Solana by the end of the quarter.
Traditional Finance Expands Presence
Traditional financial firms increased their activity on Solana. Ondo Finance launched over 200 tokenised equities and ETFs via Ondo Global Markets, while Franklin Templeton partnered with Ondo to bring tokenised ETF products to the blockchain. Citigroup, in collaboration with PwC, completed a proof of concept for tokenised trade finance on Solana.
Payments and Stablecoins on the Rise
Payments have become a central theme. Companies such as Visa, Stripe, Worldpay, Western Union, and PayPal have integrated Solana for stablecoin settlement or launched native payment products over the past year. Solana's low fees and near-instant settlement times have made it increasingly attractive for payment infrastructure.
The stablecoin market capitalisation on Solana closed the quarter at $14.85 billion, ranking the network third among blockchains. Adjusted stablecoin transfer volume rose 13% quarter-on-quarter to $246.8 billion.
Resilient On-Chain Activity
Despite falling cryptocurrency prices, Solana's on-chain activity remained robust. Total application revenue, described by Messari as the network's "on-chain GDP," held steady at $342.2 million for the quarter.
Technical Developments and Future Outlook
Messari noted a shift in Solana's activity, with high-speed trading infrastructure known as "Prop AMMs" beginning to outperform centralised exchanges in execution quality and trading costs. The upcoming Alpenglow upgrade is expected to reduce transaction finality times from around 12.8 seconds to approximately 150 milliseconds, potentially strengthening Solana's position in payments, tokenised finance, and AI-driven applications.
Disclaimer: Portions of this article were generated with AI tools and reviewed by editorial staff for accuracy and compliance with standards.
