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

In an interview with CoinDesk, the lead engineer at Firedancer gives an update on how the new client, also known as a software, is fairing in the Solana ecosystem.

Jump Crypto's ‘Firedancer' is taking a slow and steady approach to its long-awaited Solana infrastructure rollout

Bitcoin

A long-skewed liquidation cascade flushed leverage across the major tokens overnight, with the move tracking a global bond selloff and the worst session for U.S. stocks since March.

Crypto longs lose $500 million as bitcoin slides to $78,000, SOL and XRP down 5%

The Solana treasury firm generated $13 million in revenue for the quarter ended March 31, up 319% year over year.

Forward Industries posts over 300% revenue growth but wider quarterly net loss amid SOL markdowns

Forward Industries posted a steep quarterly loss tied to declines in solana's market value, even as the company expanded its SOL treasury strategy and staking operations. The firm now holds nearly 7 million SOL and is positioning itself as a long-term infrastructure player within the Solana ecosystem.

Forward Industries Posts $585M Loss as Solana Treasury Swings Hit Earnings

Crypto ETF markets faced another sharp wave of selling on Wednesday, with bitcoin funds posting their second straight day of heavy outflows and ether ETFs extending their losing streak to three sessions. Solana stood out as the lone area of strength, while XRP products remained inactive.

Blackrock Leads $635M Bitcoin ETF Selloff as Solana Demand Holds Firm

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Donald Trump of potential conflict over Taiwan during the first U.S. presidential visit to China in nearly a decade.

Solana drops 5%, bitcoin below $80,000 as Xi warns Trump on Taiwan conflict

DeFi Development Corp attributed the growth to 'unconventional' strategies that aligned the company better with the Solana ecosystem.

Solana treasury firm DeFi Development Corp reports 108% yearly growth in SOL per share

Crypto ETF flows turned sharply negative on Tuesday as investors pulled capital from both bitcoin and ether products, signaling a renewed wave of caution across major digital assets. XRP and solana ETFs continued to attract fresh money, extending a growing divergence in institutional positioning. Bitcoin ETFs Trade $1.

Fidelity Leads $233M Bitcoin ETFs Loss as Solana Funds Add $19M

Ethereum

The current near-parity gives both chains another chance to position themselves to capture volume when onchain activity rotates back.

Ethereum closes gap with Solana as DEX volumes converge near $45 billion

The Nasdaq-listed firm said the net loss was mainly driven by $92.3 million of unrealized losses on digital assets.

Solana treasury firm Upexi posts $109 million quarterly net loss amid crypto markdowns

Tokenized Anthropic and OpenAI PreStocks on Solana fell sharply after both companies warned that unauthorized equity transfers may be void.

Anthropic, OpenAI tokenized PreStocks on Solana plunge after unauthorized equity transfer warnings

Korean won-denominated stablecoin KRWQ is expanding to Solana to support Korean won liquidity onchain.

Korean won stablecoin KRWQ expands to Solana following March EDX Markets listing

Bitcoin's BTC$80,545.23 rally stalled in the $80,000–$82,000 range, where it has largely traded since last Wednesday. While fund flows continue to point toward an eventual breakout, macro risks, particularly inflation, suggest caution.

Crypto markets stalls before inflation data as XRP, SOL rebuffed from key price levels

Dogecoin

Bitcoin held above $81,000 after touching $82,026 overnight, while solana led the major altcoins on the week as The Big Short investor warned the Nasdaq 100 had reached dot-com bubble territory and oil zoomed past $105 on fresh Iran ceasefire doubts.

Bitcoin briefly hits $82,000, SOL, DOGE higher as Michael Burry warns of stock crash

Solana's Alpenglow consensus protocol upgrade is one step closer to being rolled out on the layer-1 network's mainnet.

Major Solana Upgrade Alpenglow Begins Testing Ahead of Full Rollout

The upgrade, known as Alpenglow, is live on a community test cluster, said Solana core developer Anza.

The biggest consensus overhaul in Solana history is officially live for testing

The AI sector ripped 17.1% week-over-week since our last update, tacking on roughly $3.3 billion to reach a market cap of $22.3 billion—its highest figure since November 2025.

AI Sector Roars Back as TAO Hits Solana and Confidential Compute Pops Off

Altcoins are beginning to wake up after months of brutal underperformance, but traders remain divided on whether the move marks the start of a broader bull cycle or just another bear market rally. Bitcoin Controls Everything In a podcast on May 9, expert trader DonAlt highlighted that several major altcoins and newer high-beta names are showing improving technical structures as Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) stabilizes above key support levels.

First Dogecoin, Now Solana: What's Driving The 10%+ Altcoin Rallies In The Past Weeks?

Jito 

The two companies will build institutional-grade validator infrastructure, optimize yield, and drive Solana adoption in Asia.

Solana Company, Jito Foundation target institutional Solana staking expansion in Asia

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) is rolling out cryptocurrency trading on its E*Trade platform charging 50 basis points per transaction, undercutting Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD), and Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW). The Pricing War Begins Morgan Stanley's 50-basis-point fee is about half of Robinhood's 95 basis points.

Morgan Stanley Undercuts Coinbase, Robinhood On BTC, ETH, SOL Trading Fees

At Consensus Miami 2026, Solana Foundation President Lily Liu argued that stablecoin adoption by firms like Western Union validates Solana's role as financial infrastructure for both human and machine economies.

Beyond humans: Lily Liu says Solana is building the payment rails for the 'AI machine economy'

Solana's Drift Protocol says most of the stolen funds linked to North Korean hackers remain traceable—and it has a plan to make victims whole.

How Solana Exchange Drift Plans to Repay Users After $295 Million Crypto Hack

Solana's new service lets AI agents pay for Google Cloud and community APIs on a per-request basis, bypassing traditional accounts.

Solana and Google Cloud Launch Stablecoin Payments Service for AI Agents

SoFiUSD is a fully reserved U.S. dollar stablecoin issued by SoFi Bank, nationally chartered bank.

SoFi to launch its stablecoin on Solana, citing speed and cost

The State Street Galaxy Onchain Liquidity Sweep Fund lets investors push stablecoins into a yield-bearing tokenized fund.

News for Solana Crypto (SOL)