Solana Shifts From Meme Coins to Institutional Finance, Expanding Stablecoins and RWA

Solana is moving beyond a growth model built on meme-coin trading and expanding into institutional finance, including stablecoins and real-world asset tokenization.

Bloomberg reported on October 27 that the Solana Foundation is focused on building a long-term growth base for the network by attracting institutional investors and expanding financial infrastructure. Lily Liu, president of the Solana Foundation, said institutional activity that moves real money and assets onto blockchain rails is now the fastest-growing segment.

Solana grew rapidly on fast transaction speeds and low fees in the meme-coin market. More recently, however, the share of speculative trading has declined. Galaxy Research said meme coins accounted for more than 50% of Solana trading volume at the end of 2024, but that share fell to 15% to 20% in the second quarter of this year.

At the same time, partnerships with traditional financial institutions are expanding. JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered are developing Solana-based services, while Visa and Fiserv are also using the network. Western Union launched the dollar-based stablecoin USDPT on Solana in May.

Competition in institutional finance is intensifying. Ethereum has held its ground in decentralized finance and tokenization, while Hyperliquid has rapidly expanded in perpetual futures trading. According to Lucas Cheyan, vice president of research at Galaxy Digital, Solana's share of on-chain perpetual futures trading fell from 17% to 6%.

Market conditions have also been difficult. Solana has fallen about 20% this year, and U.S.-listed Solana spot and staking exchange-traded funds posted total net outflows of $50 million for a second straight week this month.

Solana has also sought to strengthen its technological edge, completing the Alpenglow upgrade on October 21 to increase transaction processing speed. Michael Wyse, chief executive officer of Kamino, said current trading performance does not guarantee future competitiveness. He added that continuously attracting real users, assets and developers will be critical.