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Solana’s 2025 updates show a blockchain that moved from recovery mode into sustained production use across finance, payments, and consumer crypto. In 2025, Solana expanded far beyond memecoin trading. It gained ETF listings, deeper institutional access, record DeFi activity, real world assets, and major network upgrades, while continuing to process high volumes without breaking.
Why did 2025 Matter so Much for Solana?
2025 marked the year Solana became part of mainstream financial infrastructure. After surviving outages, market downturns, and reputation damage in earlier cycles, the network entered 2025 with improved stability and clear demand.
Several factors came together:
- Regulated Solana ETFs launched and attracted sustained inflows
- DeFi usage reached its highest level since mid-2022
- Real world assets, including funds, stocks, and loans, moved onchain
- Major institutions like Fidelity, Visa, and Gemini integrated Solana
- Core network upgrades shipped after years of testing
Solana ETFs Finally Arrive on the Global Stage
Kazakhstan lists the first Solana ETF with staking
On September 5, 2025, Fonte Capital Ltd launched the first Solana ETF with staking rights on the Astana International Exchange in Kazakhstan. The fund trades under the ticker SETF and gives investors exposure to SOL plus staking rewards.
Key details of the ETF include:
- Registered under the Astana International Financial Centre
- Structured as an open ended investment company
- Quoted in U.S. dollars
- Estimated staking yield of 5.5% to 7.5% for 2025
- Custody handled by BitGo Trust Company with $250 million in insurance
The ETF is available to both qualified and non qualified investors. Trading is supported by Bybit Kazakhstan, ATAIX Eurasia, and Binance Kazakhstan, with Freedom Broker acting as market maker.
Kazakhstan has positioned itself as a testing ground for regulated digital asset products. For Solana, this ETF provided regulated access without requiring users to manage private keys or staking infrastructure.
U.S. Solana ETFs follow after creative workarounds
Solana ETF approval in the United States did not come easily. While Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs were approved in 2024, SOL faced delays despite political support for crypto innovation.
The first breakthrough came from REX Shares, which launched a hybrid product combining SOL based ETPs with direct SOL exposure. Its fund, $SSK, attracted more than $400 million in inflows during a three month period when it had no competition.
In October 2025, Bitwise launched $BSOL during a government shutdown, using another regulatory loophole. The launch became the most successful ETF debut of the year by volume and inflows.
Since then:
- Eight issuers have listed Solana ETFs
- ETFs recorded a 21 day streak of inflows
- Total assets under management reached over $747 million
Solana ETFs turned SOL into a standard financial instrument rather than a niche crypto asset.
How Strong is Solana DeFi Right Now?
DeFi TVL reaches a multi year high
Solana DeFi activity surged in 2025. Total value locked reached 62.5 million SOL, the highest level since June 2022. That figure represents a 15% increase over the previous 30 days.
Seven of the top eight Solana DeFi protocols, each with more than $1 billion in TVL, posted positive growth.
Leading protocols include:
- Jupiter: $2.61 billion
- Kamino: $2.47 billion
- Sanctum: $1.794 billion
- Jito: $1.796 billion
- Raydium: $1.45 billion
In native terms, Solana now holds more locked value than Base, Ethereum’s largest Layer 2, which has about $4.46 billion in TVL.
Gemini Launches a Solana Credit Card With Auto Staking
Gemini introduced a Solana credit card that lets users earn SOL rewards and stake them automatically. The card runs on the Mastercard network and offers up to 4% back in SOL.
Reward structure includes:
- 4% on gas, EV charging, and rideshare
- 3% on dining
- 2% on groceries
- 1% on other purchases
Through Gemini Vault Rewards, some merchants offer up to 10% back based on spending tiers.
A key feature is auto staking. Users can choose to have earned SOL automatically staked at up to 6.77% APY, with the option to unstake at any time.
Gemini reports that users holding SOL rewards since 2021 have seen roughly 300% appreciation as of July 2025. Card sign ups grew from 8,000 in August 2024 to nearly 31,000 in August 2025.
Fidelity Adds Solana Trading and Custody
Fidelity Digital Assets, part of Fidelity’s $4 trillion asset management group, added Solana trading and custody in 2025.
The service now supports:
- Retail accounts
- IRAs
- Wealth management clients
- Institutional customers
Trades are commission free, with spreads up to 1%.
Solana now sits alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin in Fidelity’s crypto offerings. This marked one of the first large scale integrations of a non Ethereum chain by a major traditional finance institution.
What is Driving Solana’s Real World Asset Growth?
Figure launches an RWA consortium on Solana
Figure launched an RWA Consortium to bring real world lending yields to Solana users. Figure already originates over $1 billion in onchain loans each month and has surpassed $19 billion in total onchain loan volume.
The consortium connects:
- Loan origination systems
- Liquid staking protocols
- Borrowing markets
- Wallet infrastructure
- Cross chain oracle systems
PRIME token launches with real loan backing
A new token called PRIME, issued by Hastra and backed by Figure’s real estate loan pools, went live on Solana. PRIME gives users access to yields from products like home equity credit lines.
Partners include:
- Kamino
- Raydium
- Gauntlet
- Privy
This setup allows users with as little as $100 to participate in the same pools as large institutions, linking traditional credit markets with DeFi tools.
Base to Solana Bridge Goes Live Through Chainlink
Solana and Base are now connected through a bridge built on Chainlink’s Cross Chain Interoperability Protocol.
The bridge supports:
- SOL and SPL tokens moving to Base
- Base assets moving to Solana
- App level transfers without extra steps
Transfers require dual validation. Both Coinbase and Chainlink node operators must confirm messages before completion.
This design reduces single point failures and improves safety when moving assets between networks that use different architectures.
Early integrations include Zora, Aerodrome, Virtuals, Flaunch, and Relay.
Solana Mobile Reveals SKR Tokenomics
Solana Mobile disclosed details of the SKR token, set to launch in January 2026. SKR supports governance and rewards within the Solana Mobile ecosystem.
Background on the Seeker smartphone
The Seeker phone launched in August 2025 after more than 150,000 pre orders. It includes secure crypto features such as Seed Vault and hardware based authentication.
Users can:
- Stake tokens
- Interact with dApps
- Swap assets
- Run decentralized physical infrastructure apps
SKR tokenomics overview
- Total supply: 10 billion tokens
Distribution includes:
- 30% airdrops
- 25% growth and partnerships
- 15% Solana Mobile team
- 10% liquidity and launch
- 10% Solana Labs
- 10% community treasury
Inflation starts at 10% in year one and declines by 25% each year until reaching 2%.
Firedancer Goes Live on Mainnet
Jump Crypto’s Firedancer validator client launched on Solana mainnet in 2025. First demoed in 2022, Firedancer adds client diversity and improves security.
While Solana has not reached the theorized 1 million transactions per second, Firedancer marks a major milestone. Solana Labs confirmed the removal of the “mainnet beta” label following its launch.
What is Alpenglow and Why Does it Matter?
Alpenglow is a major consensus upgrade approved in a near unanimous governance vote in September.
It aims to:
- Eliminate validator voting costs
- Reduce network latency to around 100 milliseconds
Alpenglow is designed to improve efficiency without changing Solana’s core architecture.
The Pump.fun ICO and Memecoin Backlash
Pump.fun launched its native $PUMP token in one of the largest ICOs in crypto history, raising $1.3 billion.
About 74% of tokens were sold directly on Solana. Since launch, nearly all protocol revenue has been directed to $PUMP buybacks, with over $216 million spent to acquire roughly 15% of circulating supply.
Despite this, many users criticized the lack of an airdrop promised earlier.
The memecoin cycle reached its peak with the launch of the TRUMP token, which pushed Solana DEX volume past $23 billion in a single day and onboarded more than 400,000 users. While the performance was held, the episode raised concerns about extractive behavior and political speculation.
Visa Settles USDC Transactions on Solana
Visa now allows U.S. banks to settle obligations using USDC on Solana instead of traditional fiat rails.
Key points:
- Cross River Bank and Lead Bank are live
- Settlement runs seven days a week
- No change to consumer card experience
Visa’s stablecoin settlement volume has reached $3.5 billion on an annualized basis.
Conclusion
Solana’s recent updates show a network operating as real infrastructure. ETFs, DeFi growth, RWA adoption, institutional custody, mobile hardware, validator upgrades, and payment settlement all shipped in live environments. The chain processed demand at scale while expanding into finance, payments, and consumer crypto without changing its core design.
Resources
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Solana on X: Posts in 2025
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Report by Unchained: Jump Crypto’s Firedancer Goes Live on Solana Mainnet
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Solana Mobile whitepaper: About SKR token
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Blog article by Base: The Base-Solana bridge is now live, secured by Chainlink & Coinbase
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Press release by Figure: Figure and Leading Crypto Partners Launch RWA Consortium for Onchain Finance on Solana
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Blog article by Gemini: Gemini Releases Solana Edition of the Gemini Credit Card and Automatic Staking for Solana Rewards
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Report by etf(.)com: Bitwise’s Solana ETF Debuts With 7% Yield & Bold Staking Strategy
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Announcement by FOnte Capital: Fonte Capital Registers the world’s first Solana ETF with Staking
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Press release by Rex Osprey: REX-Osprey™ Launches First U.S. ETF with Solana Exposure plus Staking Rewards
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Report by CoinDesk: Pump.fun to Launch PUMP Token via ICO on July 12
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Report by Solana Floor: Solana Wrapped: The 10 Biggest Stories of 2025