Helium Token Holders Approve Switch to Solana Blockchain

Crypto-powered wireless network Helium will officially migrate from its own blockchain to Solana, with 81% of voters agreeing to the move

article-image

Helium CEO Amir Haleem | Source: MicroMobility

share

key takeaways

  • The move is pegged to make Helium tokens more compatible with other crypto applications
  • More than 6,000 community members voted in favor of the migration, while some 1,000 voted against

Token holders in decentralized wireless provider Helium have formally voted to move from its own Layer-1 blockchain to the Solana protocol.

On Wednesday, a majority community vote of 81.41% officially ratified the Helium Improvement Proposal (HIP 70) aimed at developing the network to meet user demand. Participants had to stake the Helium token (HNT) in order to engage in the vote. 

The final results showed 6,177 members voted in favor of the migration by staking some 12 million HNT ($57 million), while 1,270 voted against it. 

The Helium Foundation said the switch will allow HNT to become more compatible with other projects and crypto applications in decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens and other Web3 applications. 

“Solana has a proven track record powering some of the world’s most important decentralized initiatives and they were an obvious choice for us to partner with,” Helium Foundation COO Scott Sigel said in a statement.

“Moving to the Solana blockchain allows us to focus our efforts on scaling the network as opposed to managing the blockchain itself.”

The Helium core developer team made the proposal, dubbed HIP 70, on Aug. 31. They said the move would “bring significant economies of scale through the vast range of composable Solana developer tools, features, and applications.” 

Helium still working on revenue streams amid Solana migration

Helium had attracted controversy in the weeks leading up to the proposal, with some questioning the network’s revenue potential. Prominent investors defended the startup, saying it was still building infrastructure and that revenue would come later. 

HNT, one of the project’s native tokens, is down 90% from its all-time high recorded as crypto prices peaked last November, correlating with the rest of the digital asset market.

In any case, as a result of Helium’s impending migration, all current ecosystem tokens, including HNT, MOBILE and IOT will be soon issued on Solana. 

Once the migration is completed, a new version of the Helium Wallet App will be available, the network said. The history of the previous blockchain will still be available to the public.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (10).png

Research

Innovations on Aptos’ technical design through Raptr, Shardines, and Zaptos approach near-optimal latency and throughput by unlocking 100% utilization of network resources, with the capacity to settle 260k transactions per second with latencies less than 800ms. The original Move language was revamped with the launch of Move 2, supporting more expressivity in smart contract logic and a scalable ability to interact with high volume datasets. The ecosystem has benefitted from strong asset inflows, now hosting over $1.3B in stablecoins, $450M in bridged BTC, and $530M in RWAs. Activity in the Aptos ecosystem has grown notably over the past year, with monthly application revenue reaching ~$835k and monthly DEX volumes growing to over $5B, both at new all time highs.

article-image

The Stripe-acquired firm has big plans for a streamlined, multi-wallet future

article-image

Both founders of the former crypto lender have now landed in new crypto industry roles

article-image

Bitcoin’s recent peak is a victory lap for curvers left and right

article-image

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo says institutions are eager to get exposure to tokenization

article-image

Trade isn’t war and prosperity isn’t a contest