(Updated with comments from the Solana Foundation)
Allfunds Blockchain is expanding its tokenized funds offering to the Solana network as financial institutions continue exploring tokenization.
Allfunds, primarily a wealth technology (WealthTech) company, supports nearly €1.8tn in assets under administration, according to its official website.
The company said on 23 Jun that funds available through Allfunds Blockchain will be accessible on Solana, allowing issuers to reach both traditional and blockchain-based markets.
Allfunds currently has six tokenized share classes available, according to managing director Rubén Nieto. He said the company selected Solana because of its growing adoption among banks, asset managers and other institutions developing tokenized financial products.
The integration is being supported by ioBuilders, a blockchain infrastructure and tokenization technology provider, while eligible products will be reviewed by Particula, a company that assesses risks in digital assets and tokenized securities, according to an official blog post.
The expansion also comes as Solana rolls out upgrades aimed at improving network performance, Ben Brophy, head of institutional growth for Europe at the Solana Foundation said.
"Firedancer, the new independent validator client developed by Jump, is designed to significantly increase throughput and network resiliency, while Alpenglow is focused on dramatically improving consensus performance and reducing latency," Brophy told Sandmark. "Together, these upgrades are expected to move Solana toward processing up to 1 million transactions per second with sub-200 millisecond finality."
Bringing Funds Onchain
Tokenization is the process of creating blockchain-based representations of traditional financial assets, such as funds, stocks and bonds.
Interest in tokenization has grown as financial firms look for ways to more effectively issue, manage and distribute assets. Currently, the sector boasts more than $32bn in distributed assets – up sharply from about $11bn a year ago, as per RWA.xyz data.
According to Allfunds, asset managers and transfer agents on its platform will be able to manage tokenized funds on Solana while continuing to use their existing operational processes. "By leveraging Solana, tokenisation moves out of the tech lab and enters the commercial mainstream," Nieto said.
Solana's Growing Role
Solana has become a popular blockchain for tokenized assets, stablecoins and payments due to its fast settlement times and very low transaction costs compared with other blockchains, such as Ethereum.
The network currently supports about $15.2bn in stablecoins, hosts $1.8bn in tokenized assets and holds about $4.9bn in total value locked (TVL), according to DeFiLlama.
Activity in tokenized assets has also been increasing on the Solana network. Earlier this month, daily trading volume in tokenized equities reached a record $142.4mn, with Solana accounting for about 96% of activity tracked across decentralized exchanges (DEXs), according to previous Sandmark reporting.
Allfund's announcement also follows other recent moves by financial services firms into Solana. On 22 Jun, MoneyGram said it had become a validator on the network, in a move that aims to expand the money transfer company's role in blockchain infrastructure.
