Solana attracts big banks as real-world assets rise 43%

Solana is shedding its memecoin reputation as big banks and traditional financial firms move billions into its ecosystem. A new report from Messari released Monday shows that Solana’s real-world asset market capitalization climbed 43% quarter-over-quarter to $2.01 billion, even as the broader crypto market struggled.

The growth was led by BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund BUIDL, which expanded to $525.4 million on Solana after Anchorage Digital added custody support for the fund. By the end of the quarter, Anchorage held roughly 81% of the asset’s supply on the network, Messari said.

Tokenized Finance Gains Momentum

The report paints Solana as increasingly becoming infrastructure for tokenized finance rather than just a hub for speculative crypto trading. Several traditional financial firms expanded their activity on Solana during the quarter. Ondo Finance launched over 200 tokenized stocks and ETFs on the network through Ondo Global Markets. Franklin Templeton partnered with Ondo to bring tokenized ETF products onchain. Citigroup also completed a proof-of-concept for tokenized trade finance on Solana with PwC.

Payments Become a Major Theme

Payments emerged as another big area for Solana. Messari noted that firms including Visa, Stripe, Worldpay, Western Union and PayPal have either integrated Solana for stablecoin settlement or launched Solana-native payment products over the past year. The report credits Solana’s low fees and near-instant settlement times as key factors driving this adoption.

Stablecoin market capitalization on Solana ended the quarter at $14.85 billion, ranking the network third among blockchains. Adjusted stablecoin transfer volume rose 13% quarter-over-quarter to $246.8 billion.

Onchain Activity Remains Resilient

Despite falling crypto prices, Solana’s onchain activity held up well. Solana’s total application revenue, which Messari calls “Chain GDP,” stayed roughly flat at $342.2 million during the quarter. However, Messari argues the nature of activity on Solana is changing. The report points to rising adoption of high-speed trading infrastructure known as “Prop AMMs,” which it says are beginning to outperform centralized exchanges on execution quality and trading costs.

Upcoming Upgrade Could Boost Performance

Messari also highlighted Solana’s upcoming Alpenglow upgrade as one of the network’s most significant technical developments. The upgrade is expected to reduce transaction finality times from roughly 12.8 seconds to about 150 milliseconds. Those performance gains could further strengthen Solana’s position in payments, tokenized finance, and AI-driven applications, according to the report.

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