Solana’s recent good news is a tech ‘validation,’ says Jupiter’s Ben Chow

The recent news bridges the gap ‘from fundamentals to perceived value,’ says Hubble protocol’s Marius Ciubotariu

article-image

Cond Std/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

If Solana aficionados have been paying any attention to recent Web3 industry headlines, they should feel some pretty good vibes by now. 

Just in the last couple weeks, a series of positive stories have landed for the ecosystem. Shopify plans to integrate with Solana Pay, allowing “millions of entrepreneurs and merchants” to have access to no-fee, Web3-native payments.” Maker is looking into the possibilities of building a new DeFi lending protocol on an appchain using Solana’s SVM. And most recently, Visa is extending USDC settlements to Solana.

Zeta Markets co-founder Tristan Frizza says the good news has been a long time coming. People are “coming around” to the Solana “side of the fence,” he says, adding that it “feels validating.” 

Read more: Shopify enables USDC payments via Solana Pay integration

On the Lightspeed podcast (Spotify/Apple), Frizza says, “everyone’s been putting in this work over the bear market,” he says, “and it’s starting to pay off.”

“People are definitely starting to pay attention.”

Jupiter co-founder Ben Chow feels the most important message that people should recognize from recent events is that people are choosing “the value and the strength of Solana’s tech over the ‘fud’ and the narrative.”

Read more: MakerDAO co-founder floats using Solana’s code to build new chain

Bridging the gap

Chow adds that he expects to see more infrastructure, business-to-business (B2B) and institutional companies considering Solana for applications. “The real pain point of needing speed and cheapness — it trumps everything,” he says.

Chow hopes the shift is a “turning point” where more payments companies choose Solana, along with other “similar use cases.” 

“This is such a powerful proof point for Solana and a validation of how robust the tech is,” he says.

Hubble Protocol founder Marius Ciubotariu argues the recent news “bridges the gap from fundamentals to perceived value.”

“People that work in these companies,” he says, “they’re not going to be influenced by Twitter fud and bag-holders shilling their thesis.”

“They actually have to make business decisions for which they’ll be responsible for in the next three years and their career is built on that,” he says. “They have to make pretty good decisions that are long-term and they’re future proof.”

All the recent advancements are a “validation of what we all knew,” Ciubotariu says, tracing back to efforts to develop Solana tech over the past few years during difficult economic times. After the bad news and despair of “black swans that had to happen,” he feels “it’s up only” from here.

“Shopify and Visa will open up APIs that nobody else was able to create before,” he says. “If you want [developers] to build and to create all sorts of payment APIs,” he explains, “you need APIs from these big companies to, basically, [permit] you to access the systems.”

“This could finally make the vision — that Solana was for payments and for speed — possible.”


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.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (19).png

Research

Suilend has grown into the top money market and liquid staking provider on Sui. STEAMM, Suilend’s Superfluid AMM, presents a compelling avenue for growing market share within Sui’s DEX landscape and revenue generation for the protocol. Suilend’s multi-product suite position it well for owning market share across key verticals. While current metrics across the Sui ecosystem are likely inflated due to Sui Foundation incentive programs, SEND trades at amongst the lowest multiples in the lend/borrow sector, suggesting that a bull case for continued growth in the ecosystem may be mispriced.

article-image

Strive board member Ben Werkman expects thousands of firms to hold BTC, if only “to protect themselves”

article-image

To date, 12.6 million humans have scanned at a World Orb

article-image

One small step for man, one giant leap for Bitcoin

article-image

Jay Woods, Chief Global Strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, said it would be “very rare” for an acquisition to happen since the IPO may occur as soon as next week

article-image

Sponsored

Money is one of the most consequential pieces of infrastructure, and M0 believes its architecture should serve builders, not extract from them

article-image

The financial backwaters they laughed at might be the only thing keeping the dollar afloat