Solana

Solana is an open source project implementing a new, high-performance, permissionless blockchain. Solana is a general purpose blockchain similar to Ethereum. End user applications as of now include decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT), marketplaces, games, and more. It aims to improve scalability by introducing a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus combined with the underlying proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus of the blockchain.

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko published a whitepaper describing Proof of History, a technique that would become critical to Solana's blockchain infrastructure, in Nov. 2017. 

Co-founder Greg Fitzgerald, who had worked with Yakovenko at Qualcomm, began prototyping the open source implementation of the whitepaper. It was published under the name Silk in 2018. 

After starting the company under the name Loom, Yakovenko, Fitzgerald, and other co-founders rebranded to Solana. Solana launched on Mainnet Beta in March 2020.

Solana was built to facilitate the development of scalable, user-friendly decentralized apps with low costs and high speeds for transactions.

Solana believes its unique blockchain architecture that combines the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and its own proof of history mechanism is the key to achieving these goals.

Proof of history works almost like a cryptographic timestamp that proves that an event has occurred at a specific time. It enables the blockchain to work fast while maintaining security and decentralization.

There are about 304 million SOL in circulation as of November 2021. Solana has an initial inflation rate of 8%, which will decrease by 15% a year until it reaches a long-term inflation rate of 1.5%. SOL is Solana’s native token.

Solana competes with other blockchain platforms such as Ethereum and Avalanche to host crypto projects such as NFTs, decentralized exchanges, and gaming. 

Developers and users flocked from Ethereum to Solana due to high transaction costs, but many could gravitate back towards Ethereum if it manages to lower costs, which could happen as a result of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade and layer 2 rollups. 

Solana.com
Docs.solana.com/history
Forums.solana.com

Carrot, the Solana-based decentralized finance ( DeFi) yield protocol, announced its shutdown on Thursday, following direct losses tied to the April 1 exploit on Drift Protocol, which drained approximately $285 million from the Drift platform in minutes.

Solana Yield Protocol Carrot Shuts Down After Drift Exploit Drains $8M in TVL

Solana Ventures, Solana Labs' Anatoly Yakovenko and Solana Foundation's Nick Ducoff have all participated in the round.

Solana yield exchange Exponent raises $5 million seed led by Multicoin Capital

The firm's MiCA-compliant euro token aims to speed up euro transfers and support regulated onchain finance as the euro stablecoin market doubled since early 2025.

Germany's AllUnity expands EURAU to Solana as euro stablecoins gain traction

Shinhan Card has partnered with the Solana Foundation to explore stablecoin payments and hybrid finance models. The initiative reflects growing interest among traditional financial firms in blockchain-based infrastructure. Key Takeaways: Shinhan Card and Solana Foundation to launch a stablecoin pilot via testnet. Solana-backed tests signal TradFi shift, as Shinhan explores hybrid finance models.

Shinhan Card Partners Solana Foundation to Pilot Stablecoin Payments

Shinhan Card has partnered with the Solana Foundation for a proof-of-concept project testing a real-world payment system using stablecoins.

South Korea's Shinhan Card to test real-world stablecoin payments on Solana

Bitcoin

Ethereum

Crypto sold off across the board with bitcoin down 2.1% and ether off 3.4% as Brent crude surged 7.1% to $126 a barrel on reports President Trump is being briefed on military options for Iran.

Bitcoin slides toward $75,000, ETH, SOL, XRP drop as oil hits four-year high

Polygon

USDC

Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta is now offering stablecoin payouts to content creators in certain countries.

Meta Launches USDC Stablecoin Creator Payouts on Solana and Polygon via Stripe

The social media giant suggests a host of popular wallets creators can use including MetaMask, Phantom, and Binance.

Meta begins offering USDC creator payouts to crypto wallets on Solana and Polygon blockchains

Squads, known for its Solana-based multisig protocol, has raised $18 million in new funding to scale its stablecoin platform Altitude.

Solana Ventures leads $18 million round in Squads to scale its stablecoin platform Altitude

Circle minted $500 million in USDC on the Solana network on April 29, with the issuance being part of a week that saw Solana process $3.25 billion in fresh USDC supply. Key Takeaways: Circle minted $500 million in USDC on Solana, as flagged by onchain intelligence firm Arkham. Solana's weekly USDC issuance hit $3.

Circle Mints $500 Million in USDC on Solana as Weekly Issuance Tops $3.25 Billion

Chiliz rolled out its own layer-1 network in 2023 to host the trading of its tokens, but is transitioning to what it calls "omnichain distribution."

World Cup fever: Chiliz expands to Solana and Base to supercharge fan token trading

Solana ended the week lower as traders turned more cautious, with macro jitters weighing on risk appetite.

Solana News: SOL Ends Lower as Traders Turn Bearish, Foundation Prepares for Quantum Risk

Bitcoin traded at $76,923 on Tuesday morning, down 2.4% over 24 hours after rejecting $79,400 the previous day, with the entire top 10 closing red as Brent crude extended its rally to a seventh straight day.

Bitcoin loses $77,000, ether, solana slide as Hormuz standoff lifts oil to 3-week high

Solana's two primary validator client developers have independently identified the same post-quantum cryptographic solution for the network, publishing working code on Github as blockchain researchers across the industry step up preparations for a future threat that remains years away.

Solana Readies Quantum Defense With 3-Step Roadmap and Falcon Implementation

Onchain traders on Jupiter, Solana's leading decentralized exchange ( DEX) aggregator, are pricing Anthropic at a $1 trillion implied valuation through synthetic Prestocks tokens, making the artificial intelligence (AI) company the third private firm to cross that threshold alongside OpenAI and SpaceX.

Anthropic Pre-IPO Traders Push Onchain Implied Cap to $1 Trillion

Solana (SOL) prices are holding above the moving average lines after being rejected at the $90 level.

Solana Moves Sideways Above $85

Two of the network's core developer teams, Anza and Jump Crypto's Firedancer, have landed on the same solution: a new type of digital signature called Falcon.

Solana developers outline plan to protect network from quantum threats

Benjamin Pasternak faces criminal charges following an investor class action lawsuit and accusations of breaching an OTC token deal.

Founder of Solana Token Launchpad Believe Arrested on Assault, Strangulation Charges

Dogecoin

Bitcoin traded at $77,794 on Thursday morning, up 0.4% over 24 hours but well off the $79,388 high hit Wednesday evening, with ether, XRP and Solana all closing red.

Bitcoin loses grip near $80,000 as ETH, SOL, DOGE fade on profit-taking

Crypto market maker GSR has launched an actively managed ETF on the Nasdaq that includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.

GSR Launches Actively Managed Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana Basket ETF on Nasdaq

Core3 marks GSR's first crypto ETF offering amid a period of expansion for the major market maker and the wider crypto fund sector.

GSR enters crypto ETF field with actively managed multi-asset fund tracking Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana

Advisory council says validator signatures and wallet cryptography could be vulnerable if future quantum computers break current encryption.

Coinbase Flags Proof-of-Stake Chains Like Ethereum, Solana as Potential Quantum Risks

Solana's SOL token ended the week down 0.75%, leaving its market capitalization just below $50 billion, as renewed macro jitters tied to the conflict in the Middle East weighed on markets.

Solana News: XRP Debuts, Drift Recovers as Solana Gains Speed

The crypto exchange opens IPO Prime access with Republic to offer Solana-based tokens tied to private firms ahead of public listings.

Bitget exchange brings pre-IPO tokens to masses starting with SpaceX on Solana

Bitcoin traded at $74,335 after Iran reimposed controls on the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, with the modest 1.6% pullback standing out against a 5.7% jump in Brent and a 1.2% drop in European equity futures.

News for Solana Crypto (SOL)