Solana is becoming Wall Street’s favorite chain. That matters for internet capital markets
Solana (SOL) is becoming the blockchain more financial firms are willing to test, according to a new Tiger Research report. The report ties that interest to “Internet Capital Markets” (ICM), its phrase for moving traditional financial assets onto blockchain rails. Big claim? Yes. Still, the pattern is getting harder to dismiss. My take: when banks and payment companies keep circling the same chain, it stops looking like random crypto experimentation and starts looking like capital choosing its pipes.
Tiger Research describes Solana as a main piece of infrastructure for the next phase of Internet Capital Markets. The firm’s latest analysis says crypto is moving out of its pure experiment phase and becoming more industrial. That sounds clean, maybe too clean. Most guides frame this as “institutions finally arrive.” That’s only half right. In Tiger’s view, ICM is where the shift leads, and Solana is the example it keeps returning to. This is not just theory either: JPMorgan, Visa, and PayPal have already run or explored Solana based pilots for asset issuance, payment settlement, and tokenized products. When those three names test the same chain, people notice. I do too.
The report says the US push toward crypto rules could make Solana more useful for institutions that need compliance built into the process. That legal piece matters. A lot. Institutions hate gray zones, and crypto has lived in them for years. SEC actions against different projects have shaken markets more than once. On the other side, spot Bitcoin ETF approvals brought fresh money into the market and helped push BTC past $61.4K in early 2024. Why does this matter? Because regulated capital usually moves slowly until the paperwork becomes boring. If Solana fits into a cleaner regulatory path, it could attract the same cautious, paperwork heavy capital that moved into regulated Bitcoin products.
The bigger story is how many institutions are trying Solana at all. Tiger Research lists JPMorgan, State Street, Citi, Franklin Templeton, Visa, PayPal, and Western Union among the firms working on Solana based asset issuance, payment settlement, or tokenized product launches. Not small names. Not toy labs. These projects touch basic financial plumbing, which is exactly why the list matters more than the press-release language around it. The report also says Solana is the most active public chain for institutional collaboration and has already handled real transactions. The numbers explain the appeal: 33 billion transactions last year, an average fee of $0.0013, and finality of about 0.4 seconds. The network also stayed online during a sharp market selloff and an AWS outage. For banks, that is not glamorous. It is the point.
What this means
Solana’s institutional traction suggests crypto is getting less fixated on retail speculation and more focused on financial infrastructure. That sounds boring. Good. Boring may be the durable part. ICM points to a market where stocks, bonds, funds, and other assets can be issued and traded through blockchain systems. Counter to the usual crypto-market instinct, the exciting part here is not a meme cycle or a weekend pump. It is settlement, issuance, compliance, access, and speed all being tested in one stack. Tiger Research sees Solana as one of the chains closest to that setup.
For SOL investors, the question is blunt: can institutional use change how the market prices the token? Maybe. If more capital moves into Solana based products, SOL could get another serious run at its old highs. Early enterprise interest helped ETH sentiment in past cycles, and traders remember that playbook. Yes, this slightly contradicts the boring-infrastructure point above; bear with me. Infrastructure can be boring operationally and still become explosive when markets start pricing future usage into a token.
Next, watch for real launch dates from the firms testing Solana. Pilots are useful, but products matter more. I’ll be honest: another vague partnership note would not move me much. Expanded settlement trials, tokenized fund launches, live payment products, or named rollout timelines would say more. US regulation is the other thing to watch, especially rules for tokenized securities and stablecoins. Those rules will decide how much of this can scale.
Is this overkill for a chain that already has momentum? No. The gap between a pilot and a production financial product is where most of the hype dies. On the chart, a move above prior resistance near $200 would give traders a cleaner bullish signal. Macro still matters too. Fed rate decisions and any shift toward quantitative easing could change risk appetite across crypto, including SOL. We have seen this movie before: strong chain narrative, weak liquidity backdrop, messy outcome.
FAQ
- What is an “Internet Capital Market” (ICM)?
- An ICM is a financial market where traditional assets are tokenized and traded on blockchain infrastructure, so capital can move faster and with fewer access barriers.
- Which institutions are reportedly using Solana?
- According to Tiger Research, JPMorgan, Visa, PayPal, State Street, Citi, Franklin Templeton, and Western Union are running pilot projects on Solana.
- What makes Solana attractive to institutions?
- Institutions are interested in Solana’s high transaction throughput, low fees, fast finality, and work around regulatory compliance.
- How has regulatory clarity affected crypto markets?
- Clearer rules have helped crypto before. Spot Bitcoin ETF approvals, for example, brought more institutional attention and helped fuel a major BTC rally.
- What Solana performance metrics does the article mention?
- Solana processed 33 billion transactions last year, with an average fee of $0.0013 and transaction finality of about 0.4 seconds.