The Solana Foundation has launched a new institutional trading initiative designed to support professional trading firms that want to operate on Solana’s decentralized finance ecosystem. The program targets hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, market makers, and crypto-native trading teams that may be new to the Solana network or seek deeper operational support. The Foundation positions the initiative as a structured on-ramp rather than a promotional campaign, with a focus on infrastructure, data access, and practical execution needs.
Solana has increasingly attracted trading activity over the past year, driven by high throughput, low transaction costs, and rising application usage. The Foundation’s latest move reflects an effort to formalize that activity by offering institutional-grade tooling and support that mirrors expectations from traditional finance and centralized crypto venues.
Industry observers have framed the initiative as a maturation step for the ecosystem. Auyush Giri, senior developer relations at Nethermind, noted that Solana’s emphasis on trading infrastructure follows clear demand signals from recent market activity and reflects a broader pattern seen in maturing blockchain networks.
The Trade on Solana program centers on five core components that address common friction points for institutions entering onchain markets. The Foundation designed the program to serve both liquidity takers and liquidity providers, with an emphasis on operational clarity and execution reliability.
VIP Trading Program & Data Insights
The first component is a VIP trading program that operates on an invite-only basis. This track gives qualified takers and makers access to liquidity pathways and incentive structures across Solana DeFi. The Foundation frames this as a selective onboarding process aimed at experienced trading firms from traditional finance, centralized exchanges, or adjacent crypto ecosystems.
A second pillar of the program focuses on market data. Participants gain access to high-frequency onchain market data designed to support algorithmic and systematic strategies. The data stack includes support for the FIX protocol, a standard interface familiar to institutional trading desks. By aligning Solana data access with existing institutional workflows, the program reduces the operational gap between onchain trading and established trading environments.
Trading Tools & Access to Broader Solana Ecosystem
The program introduces trading tools that improve observability across the Solana transaction lifecycle. These tools help firms analyze how transactions propagate, land, and settle on the network. Execution quality, transaction ordering, and landing behavior remain critical considerations for professional traders, particularly those deploying latency-sensitive strategies.
Beyond tooling and data, the program emphasizes direct access to the broader Solana ecosystem. Participants receive high-touch introductions to relevant DeFi protocols, infrastructure providers, and development teams. This access aims to streamline due diligence and integration efforts while helping firms identify venues that align with their trading strategies.
The Foundation also provides direct assistance in understanding yield opportunities across Solana DeFi. This includes guidance on passive yield strategies that institutions may incorporate alongside active trading operations.
Recent Network Activity
The program launch follows a period of strong network activity for Solana. In January, more than $380 million was bridged from other blockchains to Solana, including over $140 million from Ethereum.
In the same month, Solana-based applications generated more than $146 million in revenue, exceeding that of all other Layer-1 and Layer-2 networks. Several applications contributed significantly to this figure. Pump.fun generated approximately $46 million in revenue, while Axiom recorded $15.36 million and Meteora reached $13.4 million.
Tokenized asset volume on Solana also reached a new all-time high of $148 million in January, signaling growing institutional and enterprise experimentation.
Read More on SolanaFloor
Jupiter Announces $35 Million Strategic Investment Into $JUP From ParaFi Capital
Arcium Mainnet Launch Heralds Birth of Encrypted Capital Markets on Solana
Why is $USD1 Solana’s Fastest-Growing Stablecoin?
