
Solana’s Next Supercycle Has Already Begun | Nick Ducoff
- Nick Ducoff, Head of Institutional Growth at the Solana Foundation, joined in 2023.
- He started as a securities lawyer for Web 2.0, founded a big-data startup (backed by Tim Draper), and went full-time crypto in 2021 after a VC stint.
- Since 2023, he has built Solana's institutional market: over $4 billion in Real World Assets (RWAs), 7 Globally Systemically Important Banks (GIBs) building on Solana, and ~$5 trillion in stablecoin volume year-to-date.
- Built for scale from day one: Solana was envisioned as an "on-chain NASDAQ" – uniting all global internet users and assets in one Layer 1.
- High throughput and low cost make Solana the leading blockchain for "Internet Capital Markets."
- Examples of institutional products:
- Morgan Stanley: ETF spot trading & custody
- JP Morgan: Commercial paper on Solana mainnet
- Citi, Société Générale, State Street, Standard Chartered, BNY Mellon – all actively building.
- Apollo, Hamilton Lane, Ondo, and others offer tokenized funds with various minimums (e.g., Hamilton Lane at just $500).
- The memecoin mania proved that Solana's network could handle massive high-frequency trading (billions of dollars, 24/7) – a clear signal to institutions that the infrastructure is ready.
- This phase strengthened institutional appeal, not harmed it.
- Not "either-or": both Ethereum and Solana are used by big players like BlackRock, Fidelity.
- Solana's advantages: SVM (Solana Virtual Machine) is more scalable and cheaper than EVM – even though EVM is more widely known.
- Weakness: Lower familiarity with SVM in financial institutions – but that's changing.
- Nick does not talk about price but about utility ("Token Supercycle" = long-term migration of money, assets, and ownership onto blockchain).
- Tokenized equities (e.g., SK Hynix, OpenAI) are already live and growing.
- Solana will grow independently of Bitcoin and SOL's price because fundamentals (transactions, wallets, RWAs) keep rising – even during bear markets.
- Real World Assets: Solana could surpass Ethereum as #1 on RWA.xyz.
- Globally Systemically Important Banks: From 7 today to about 14 out of 29, building on Solana.
- Technical Roadmap: Successful implementation of independent validator clients and Alpenlow consensus.
- Nick recommends following Solana on X (@Solana) and attending the Breakpoint conference in London (November 15-17).
- Takeaway: Solana's value lies in real usage, not price. To track its success, watch institutional metrics.
Note: All numbers and examples are based on the interview date (October 2026).






