Solana News from July 15-18, 2025

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Solana Newsletter
July 18, 2025

  1. Firedancer (Solana) – Firedancer dev Michael McGee revealed the challenges of rebuilding Solana’s validator client from scratch while staying compatible with the fast-evolving Agave client. Despite setbacks like Solana’s Alpenglow rewrite rendering some work obsolete, the project is progressing with 9.3% of staked SOL now running on “Frankendancer” — a partial implementation already improving block packing efficiency.

  2. Bitcoin Hyper - Bitcoin Hyper is the first Layer-2 solution pairing Bitcoin's security with Solana's execution speed, backed by over $2.7M in funding.

  3. ProShares (Ultra SOL) - ProShares listed leveraged ETFs approved on NYSE Arca to provide 2x daily exposure to Solana.

  4. OFA Group - Raised $100M (extendable to $200M) and plans a crypto vault with Bitwise focused on BTC, SOL, and SUI.

  5. Vault Ventures Plc - Increased Bitcoin holdings by 1.72 BTC (now ~3.8 BTC) and also holds 654 ETH and 2,143 SOL, signaling continued diversified accumulation.

  6. Solana RWA Tokenization - Tokenized real‑world assets on Solana surpassed the ~$0.4–0.5B mark in 2025 (well over +140% YTD), ranking fourth behind Ethereum, ZKSync Era, and Aptos; growth driven by tokenized Treasuries, equities, private credit and platforms like Circle, Ondo, and Backed.

  7. Solana Treasury Accelerator (DFDV) - DeFi Development launched the DFDV Treasury Accelerator to franchise Solana treasury operations for partners seeking more active strategies than simple BTC holding.

  8. Hivemapper (Solana DePIN) - Hivemapper will provide mapping for Volkswagen’s Robotaxi program, highlighting Solana’s DePIN use cases in autonomous mobility.

  9. Raydium - Raydium executed a major buyback, spending ~$190M to repurchase 69M RAY tokens.

  10. Liquid Collective - Launched a Solana liquid staking token (post LsETH) to meet rising institutional demand for diversified staking exposure.

  11. Meme & AI Crossover - Elon Musk naming xAI’s companion “Ani” sparked rapid meme coin spin‑offs, blending AI branding with speculative token launches.

  12. DePIN & Data Infrastructure - Integration of decentralized mapping (Hivemapper) into mainstream mobility use cases showcases real utility stories supporting broader ecosystem legitimacy.