Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan believes Solana is positioning itself as the blockchain of choice for Wall Street as institutions look for scalable infrastructure to power the next phase of digital finance.
Speaking with Solana Labs’ Akshay Rajan on Oct. 2, Hougan said, “I think Solana is the new Wall Street,” citing its performance and technical capabilities as key factors drawing institutional attention.
According to Hougan, financial institutions are starting to take tokenization and stablecoins seriously, viewing them as transformative technologies that will reshape everything from payments to capital markets.
“Really important people are saying that stablecoins will reinvent payments and tokenization will reinvent stock, bond, commodity, and real estate markets,” he said.
Solana’s rapid settlement speeds, improving from 400 microseconds to 150 microseconds, are particularly appealing to institutions accustomed to fast-paced trading environments.
“That’s how they like to trade,” Hougan noted, framing Solana’s architecture as better aligned with Wall Street expectations than slower alternatives.
Despite Ethereum’s dominance, Solana is making measurable progress. It now hosts $13.9 billion in onchain stablecoins, giving it a 4.7% share of the market, according to data from RWA.xyz.
Ethereum still leads by a wide margin, with $172.5 billion in stablecoins across its mainnet and layer-2 ecosystems such as Arbitrum, Base, and Polygon.
Still, momentum is slowly shifting as new projects seek out alternative blockchains with faster throughput and lower fees.
Not everyone is convinced. Offchain Labs’ Chief Strategy Officer AJ Warner pointed to Ethereum’s vastly higher total value locked (TVL), arguing that EVM-based ecosystems remain the best venues for launching stablecoin projects.
Bitwise, however, has been increasingly vocal about its support for Solana. At Token2049 in Singapore, Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley suggested Solana may have a structural advantage over Ethereum in the race for staking ETFs.
Faster unstaking times, he explained, could prove crucial for products that need to return assets quickly.
The firm currently offers the Bitwise Physical Solana ETP, backed by actual SOL with institutional-grade custody.
While interest remains modest at $30 million in assets under management, Bitwise also has a spot Solana ETF awaiting a final decision from the SEC by Oct. 16.
Several top asset managers, including Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, and Bitwise, have submitted updated S-1 filings for spot Solana ETFs, some with staking features.
ETF analyst Nate Geraci expects the US SEC could approve them by mid-October, calling it a pivotal month for digital asset products.
The filings follow the recent launch of the REX-Osprey Solana Staking ETF on the Cboe BZX Exchange, which drew $12 million in first-day inflows.
Analysts say Solana is quickly becoming the next altcoin favored by institutions, with strong inflows also reported in Europe-based Solana ETPs.
Geraci and others believe the inclusion of staking language in these filings could pave the way for long-awaited spot Ethereum ETFs with staking capabilities.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin exchange-traded products now hold over 1.47 million BTC, representing around 7% of the total supply, with U.S.-based ETFs dominating the landscape.
BlackRock’s IBIT leads with 746,810 BTC, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC at nearly 199,500 BTC, according to data from HODL15Capital.
