"Will Become Real-World Usage Infrastructure"... Solana's 10-Year Roadmap [Breakpoint 2025]

Breakpoint 2025

Global companies, institutions, and banks joining Solana

"The next 10 years will be a competition for on-chain real-world usage"

Android expansion opens the gateway for hundreds of millions of users

Solana (Solana·SOL) concluded its annual event 'Breakpoint 2025' held for three days from the 11th to the 13th at Abu Dhabi Etihad Arena. The venue was bustling with global Web3 industry participants throughout the three days, and the event demonstrated that the Solana ecosystem is expanding beyond a simple decentralized finance (DeFi) platform into real-world finance and institutional infrastructure.

This year's Breakpoint hosted not only Solana ecosystem projects but also major global companies such as Circle and Kraken, which set up booths. On stage, global Web3 companies and financial institutions presented their on-chain strategies, collaboration cases, and technical roadmaps, maintaining a high level of engagement throughout the event.

A notable change at this event was that Solana clearly showed it has moved beyond a "technology demo-focused event" into a stage of actual adoption and commercialization. Among attendees, there were repeated assessments that "Solana has now moved beyond the experimental stage and is becoming real-world usage infrastructure."

Last year's Breakpoint drew about 5,000 attendees, while this year more than 7,000 people from 105 countries gathered, significantly expanding both scale and influence. An attendee met on-site said, "Not only the event size but the nature of participating institutions has changed," and added, "I could feel that the Solana ecosystem is growing rapidly."

Coinbase, Singapore, Bhutan bank join the Solana ecosystem

The biggest attention on the first day of the event was the collaboration announcements between Solana and global finance/Web3 companies. In particular, Coinbase's unveiling of Solana on-chain trading functionality drew the most interest from participants.

On the 11th (local time), Coinbase announced it has built a structure that allows newly created tokens on the Solana network to be traded immediately without separate centralized exchange listing procedures. Andrew Allen, Coinbase's Solana product lead, who took the podium that day, said, "The goal is to connect users immediately to the millions of new assets created on-chain every day," and explained, "Within the familiar Coinbase app interface, users can instantly buy and sell on-chain assets."

The feature demo was conducted directly by Sabs Sachdeva, a Coinbase software engineer. On the surface, it appears identical to a traditional centralized exchange screen, but core logic such as order execution and routing and slippage management is all processed on the Solana blockchain. He emphasized, "Users will feel like they are using a conventional exchange, but on the backend, everything operates on-chain."

Participation from traditional finance was also notable. Singapore Gulf Bank officially announced Solana-based stablecoin payment and remittance features, demonstrating an environment where USDC and USDT can be sent to the Solana network from the bank app with just a few clicks. They also revealed community-friendly operational strategies such as gas fee waivers and automatic wallet linking.

There was also a national-level participation case. Bhutan's state-owned DK Bank disclosed a strategy to issue a gold-backed token on Solana. Yudong Zheng, CEO of DK Bank Group, announced that the gold-backed token 'Ter-Mei Trager' will be issued to coincide with Bhutan's national day on the 17th. The token is pegged to the gold value per ounce (oz) and can be exchanged for physical gold when holding above a certain amount. This is being evaluated as a national-level on-chain adoption case linked to the Bhutan government's digital ID and asset management strategy.

Solana: "The next 10 years are the era of on-chain real-world usage"

On the second day, the co-founders presented Solana's long-term vision in keynote speeches. Raj Gokal, Chief Operating Officer (COO), and Anatoly Yakovenko, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), assessed that Solana has evolved from a DeFi- and meme-centered chain into a general-purpose infrastructure platform.

CEO Yakovenko said, "A variety of use cases collectively create momentum, and the Solana network has reached a stable trajectory in terms of technology, performance, and scalability." COO Gokal emphasized, "The essence of decentralization is to return economic power to those who did not have opportunities in existing financial structures," adding, "The ownership-based economy that blockchain creates enables a new social contract."

The two co-founders defined the next decade as the 'era of on-chain real-world usage.' They explained that intuitive and entertaining services such as games, communities, and revenue-generating applications will drive large-scale adoption, and at the same time, on-chain businesses must generate tangible revenue for the network to be sustainable.

COO Gokal stated, "If just 10% of global finance moves on-chain, the landscape will be completely changed," diagnosing that the financial infrastructure transition has already begun. CEO Yakovenko also said, "We are only at the beginning of an ecosystem transition," and added, "I am most excited about the next stage to unfold."

Solana Mobile to enter the Android ecosystem

The highlight of the final day was the strategic pivot announcement for Solana Mobile. Emmett Hollyer, head of Solana Mobile, said, "This year proved the market viability of Solana Mobile," and expressed confidence: "Next year we will fully implement the Solana Mobile strategy to achieve large-scale user expansion."

At the core of this strategy is the Android ecosystem expansion of the Solana Mobile technology stack. Solana Mobile has formed a partnership with Taiwan's MediaTek and plans to push a project that allows Android OEM manufacturers to natively include Solana's security modules, key management, and on-chain integration features. This will open the foundation for hundreds of millions of existing Android devices to connect directly to the Solana network.

A new security layer called 'Guardian' was also unveiled. In case of device loss or security threats, a network-level guardian can recover wallets and accounts; it is a new model combining hardware security and on-chain verification. Hollyer emphasized, "Mobile will no longer be a mere access channel but will become the primary gateway to the Solana network."