Solana is shedding its memecoin reputation as big banks move billions into its ecosystem

Solana (SOL) continued to attract institutional finance and payment firms in the first quarter, even as the broader crypto market weakened, according to a new report from Messari.

The research firm said Monday that Solana’s real-world asset market capitalization rose 43% quarter-over-quarter to $2.01 billion, led by growth in BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund BUIDL and new integrations tied to payments and tokenized finance.

BUIDL, developed by BlackRock and Securitize, grew to $525.4 million on Solana after Anchorage Digital added custody support for the fund. Anchorage held roughly 81% of the asset’s supply on the network by the end of the quarter, Messari said.

The report framed Solana as increasingly becoming infrastructure for tokenized finance rather than only a hub for speculative crypto trading.

Several traditional financial firms expanded activity tied to Solana during the quarter. Ondo Finance launched more than 200 tokenized stocks and ETFs on the network through Ondo Global Markets, while 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 emerged as another major theme.

Messari said firms including Visa, Stripe, Worldpay, Western Union and PayPal either integrated Solana for stablecoin settlement or launched Solana-native payment products over the past year. The report said Solana’s low fees and near-instant settlement times have made it increasingly attractive for payment infrastructure.

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.

Despite falling crypto prices, Solana’s onchain activity remained resilient. Solana’s total application revenue, which Messari refers to as “Chain GDP,” held roughly flat at $342.2 million during the quarter.

Still, Messari argued the nature of activity on Solana is changing. The report pointed to rising adoption of high-speed trading infrastructure known as “Prop AMMs,” which it said are beginning to outperform centralized exchanges on execution quality and trading costs.

Messari also described 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. The firm said those performance gains could strengthen Solana’s position in payments, tokenized finance and AI-driven applications.