Key Takeaways:
SoFi and Cash App launched stablecoin services on Solana in the same week the network captured 97% of all tokenized equities trading volume.
Solana accounted for 97% of tokenized equities trading volume in the week ending May 31, as SoFi Technologies Inc. and Block Inc.'s Cash App launched stablecoin services on the network, marking the deepest integration of mainstream fintech platforms with the blockchain.
"The convergence of traditional finance infrastructure with Solana's settlement layer is accelerating faster than most market participants expected," said Jason Wu, on-chain analyst at Edgen. "When a national bank-issued stablecoin and a 60-million-user payments app both choose the same chain in the same week, it signals a structural shift in where real-world asset flows are settling."
SoFi, the first U.S. national bank to issue a stablecoin directly in a consumer banking app, launched SoFiUSD on Solana and Ethereum on May 28, giving its 15 million members access to dollar-denominated digital payments on the network. Two days earlier, Block began rolling out USDC payments to Cash App's approximately 60 million monthly transacting customers, supporting transfers across Solana, Ethereum, Polygon and Arbitrum. Cash App converts incoming USDC automatically into U.S. dollars, while outgoing payments draw from a user's dollar balance to an external blockchain wallet.
The network processed $36.87 billion in DEX volume over the period, surpassing Ethereum's $31.59 billion, according to DefiLlama. Solana also handled 32.6% of global stablecoin transfer volume, overtaking Ethereum's 27.8% share in adjusted weekly flows. The chain's stablecoin supply has grown to roughly $13 billion, and its total app revenue has reached approximately $4 billion.
Institutional flows accelerate alongside retail adoption
U.S. Solana spot ETFs recorded $115.34 million in net inflows during May, the highest monthly total of 2026, with zero net outflow days for the entire month, according to Sosovalue data. The Bitwise Solana Staking ETF led with a single-day inflow of $20.77 million on May 6. The inflows came as Bitcoin spot ETFs shed nearly $1 billion over two sessions and Ethereum ETFs posted over $100 million in outflows in a single day.
The institutional demand is backed by on-chain fundamentals that have strengthened even as SOL's price declined. Solana holds roughly $2.1 billion in outstanding on-chain loans, representing 10% of the active loans market across all blockchains. The network added over 11,500 new developers in the first nine months of 2025, second only to Ethereum.
Alpenglow upgrade and the path to mainstream payments
The Alpenglow upgrade, which went live on a community validator test cluster on May 11 and targets mainnet as early as Q3 2026, would cut transaction finality from approximately 12.8 seconds to around 150 milliseconds. That would make Solana faster than most centralized payment rails, a threshold that analysts say could unlock broader merchant adoption.
South Korea's largest card issuer, Shinhan Card, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Solana Foundation in April to bring stablecoin payments to its 28 million cardholders. PayPal has also expanded its PYUSD merchant pilot to Solana for cross-border payments.
The token's price at $81.50 remains 72% below its January 2025 all-time high of $295, held back in part by selling pressure from Pump.fun, the meme coin launchpad that deposited over 4.2 million SOL worth approximately $738 million into exchanges during May. Open interest in SOL futures dropped 30% during the month, falling from $2.75 billion to $1.90 billion, as leveraged traders reduced exposure even as spot buyers remained active.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
