Solana Institutional Monthly Roundup: April 2024

Featured Project of the Month:
Wormhole

Wormhole launched their $W token earlier in April. They have been the leaders for crosschain transactions and have built decentralized infrastructure to provide safe and secure experience.

Wormhole has created an amazing ecosystem of decentralized applications (Dapps) that offer cross-chain DeFi capabilities. No wonder, they are the featured project of the month.

Solana in Dubai 2049 and Paris Blockchain Week

Ecosystem Updates: DeFi

A multisig that institutions can use for better security and governance

• Crossed the $20b mark for total assets secured by Squads
• 5+ Squad teams secured by Squads launched tokens in April, including Kamino, Wormhole, Tensor, Parcl and SharkyFi
• Released the Fuse beta to the first 30+ users
• Fuse is Solana’s first smart wallet for individual users that combines the security of a multisig with the accessibility of a mobile wallet

An institution-grade lending platform

• Growth in secured lending, facilitated over $100m in loans
• Lenders are earning up to 23% on USDC, BTC, wETH and SOL
• Launch of BTC lending pool
• Institutions can now enjoy exclusive access to lending in digital assets with just one account.

Marinade Finance A staking provider on Solana with over 10M SOL TVL

• Messari published their research on Marinade recently highlighting their journey, product suite, growth and tokenomics in good detail. The report also talks about new product features like protected staking rewards (PSR)

• Marinade’s liquid staking token mSOL listed on Coinbase Custody
• Launching Protected Staking Rewards (PSR) where validators will sign a bond with Marinade towards assured rewards for the stakers. 161 validators signed up in the first week of launch.
• Marinade’s delegation strategy has been refined with updated eligibility criteria and concentration scores to better align with Solana decentralization goals

Read the full Messari Q1 report on Marinade here.

Ecosystem Updates: Data

Pyth: Smarter data for smarter contracts

• Pyth Network Adds Price Feeds for 13 Bitcoin ETFs. This allows developers to create decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to easily get precise pricing data for Bitcoin ETFs
• Pyth added two strategic data publishers this month making their data more reliable.
• Portofino, a Switzerland-based market maker with teams based in both London and Zug.
• Time Research, a crypto trading firm focused on developing sophisticated strategies and innovative tools for quantitative trading across an array of crypto assets

Institutional-grade ecosystem for real-time real estate data, analytics, and liquidity

• The $PRCL token launch happened in TGE after a very successful growth campaign
• Parcl announced a key partnership with Skybridge, an alternative investment management firm
• Other institutional partnerships include Home price hedges who are market makers for CME Case Shiller Home Price Index Futures contracts

Ecosystem Updates: Tokenization

Ondo: Institutional grade on-chain finance

• Ondo’s USD Yield token (USDY) crossed $200m of TVL.
• Ondo updated the underlying security for OUSG (Ondo’s Short term government treasuries) from BlackRock’s US Treasury Bond ETF (SHV) to the new Securitize / BlackRock, BUIDL fund to allow for 24/7 mint and redeem.
• USDY & OUSG are now integrated into Ledger Enterprise Tradelink, a next-generation off-exchange trading network.

Institutional-grade blockchain bonds

• Etherfuse crossed $1.2 Million in bonds issued
• Launched their rebasing token based on feedback from users wanting bonds to compound and reinvest until they decide to sell.

Structured products on Solana

• Globally first USDC-denominated bond by a publicly listed company (Metavisio, France)
• First issuance by leading global impact & micro-finance provider Mikro Kapital
• More than 10 new bonds issues in Q1
• Membership in the reputable Tokenized Asset Coalition Link alongside Solana Foundation, Circle and Coinbase
• Partnership with Archax (UK licensed) to enhance accessibility and custody of digital assets
• Won ‘Best Solana dApp’ category of the Encode x Solana hackathon
• Won ‘Token Titans’ category at Davos Disruptors pitch event at CRYPTO2030

Top Three Trends

Tokenization​​

This definitely seems to be a hot topic, with Blockrock’s BUIDL launch happening on the Ethereum Blockchain. This is a positive narrative for the convergence of capital markets and on-chain assets on open blockchain. Can the big banks follow suit?

Restaking​​

has been grabbing headlines, particularly within the Ethereum landscape with Eigen Layer as the poster child. There are new upcoming projects like Picasso on Solana that are looking into this space as well. However, how restaking would work in a single-state machine is yet to be seen.

Institutional integration for SPL tokens​​

Seems to be another hot trend of the month. While Ethereum is clearly the leading chain, Solana is not far behind.

We have seen a surge in institutional interest for SPL (Solana Program Library) tokens, and several discussions with custodians and centralized exchanges are in motion to bring SPL tokens to institutional and retail audiences.

If you’re an institution looking to learn more about the Solana ecosystem, get in touch with Arun Krishnakumar at arun(at)marinade.finance