Solana

Solana (SOL) is a Layer 1 blockchain made for decentralized applications that need quick, secure and inexpensive transactions. Anatoly Yakovenko founded it in 2017. The Switzerland-based Solana Foundation supports the project.

The network keeps one unified ledger instead of using sharding or multiple layers, which avoids splitting liquidity. Its design aims for throughput in the thousands per second, confirmation in under a second, and fees that are often below one cent.

Solana pairs Proof of Stake with Proof of History, a decentralized clock that timestamps transactions and reduces how much nodes must communicate. The Sealevel engine executes smart contracts that do not conflict with each other at the same time across several CPU cores. The Gulf Stream protocol shortens confirmation times by passing transactions to validators before the current block ends.

The SOL token pays transaction fees, supports governance and helps secure the network through staking. In 2025, Visa began settling USDC payments on the network. Galaxy Digital is among the firms that have tokenized public equity, and spot Solana ETFs also exist.