Crypto-focused venture firm Multicoin Capital has outlined why Solana (SOL) could surpass traditional finance giants like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ. Solana, now valued at over $100 billion, is positioned to outperform centralized financial systems, according to the report titled “The Solana Thesis: Internet Capital Markets” by Multicoin Capital Co-Founder Kyle Samani.
Multicoin Capital, an early investor in Solana since its 2018 seed round, has watched the blockchain ecosystem become one of the fastest-growing in the crypto space. Samani emphasizes that Solana has surpassed Ethereum on key metrics, including trading volumes, daily active addresses, and decentralized finance (DeFi) payments. The thesis points out that Solana’s scalability and unique architecture give it a distinct edge over traditional exchanges like NYSE and NASDAQ.
Samani highlights Solana’s ability to reduce transaction fees by 90%-99%, making it incredibly attractive to both merchants and consumers. While Solana’s transaction costs are nearly zero at around $0.001 per transaction, these fees are just a small part of the larger picture. According to Samani, the true potential lies in Solana’s ability to capture value across multiple layers of the financial stack, providing new revenue streams for users and investors alike.
A major argument in Multicoin Capital’s thesis is that Solana’s low transaction fees will help drive mass adoption. Peer-to-peer payments play a crucial role in bringing new users to the platform, which leads to increased liquidity and transaction volume. This, in turn, supports the growing DeFi ecosystem on Solana, where the majority of revenue is generated.
Solana’s fee structure also makes it highly attractive for the global payments market, which has been hampered by high fees and slow transaction speeds in traditional systems. As more users adopt Solana’s wallet and DeFi applications, its network becomes increasingly viral, attracting even more liquidity and volume. This could push Solana toward being a global payment solution for both consumers and businesses.
One of the standout innovations from Solana is the Multiple Concurrent Leaders (MCL) framework. This design allows several nodes to produce blocks simultaneously, reducing latency and enabling faster, more efficient transaction finality across global markets. Unlike traditional exchanges that rely on centralized servers, Solana’s MCL framework improves market data access and price discovery, making it more efficient for users across the world.
Samani also emphasizes Solana’s role as a hub for decentralized finance, including products such as derivatives, lending, and tokenized real estate. He envisions a future where all asset classes, from real estate to collectibles, are tokenized and traded on Solana’s decentralized platform. This would fundamentally reshape how traditional financial markets operate.
The Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) concept is another critical component of Solana’s growing financial ecosystem. Samani argues that MEV, the value generated by the order of transactions, will become a primary revenue driver for Solana. This model is already being implemented by decentralized finance protocols on Solana and will likely expand as more traditional financial products move to the blockchain.
In Q4 2024, Solana’s revenue-validated value (REV) surged to over $800 million, a massive jump from near zero just one year ago. This figure points to Solana’s rapid growth and its capacity to generate substantial revenue, especially as more DeFi applications and financial protocols move onto its blockchain.
In his conclusion, Samani emphasizes that Solana’s infrastructure is poised to disrupt legacy financial markets by offering lower fees, greater liquidity, faster transaction finality, and broader support for tokenized assets. This makes Solana not just a decentralized version of the NASDAQ, but a future-ready platform for global financial services.
Multicoin Capital’s vision is that Solana’s innovation will create an open and permissionless financial system, replacing traditional finance hubs like NYSE, NASDAQ, and CME. While regulatory hurdles and technological advancements will play a crucial role in this evolution, Samani believes that Solana’s growth trajectory places it in the driver’s seat to reshape global financial markets.
At press time, Solana’s SOL is trading at $249.50, and market experts are closely watching the blockchain’s next moves as it challenges traditional finance systems.
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