On-chain Nasdaq takes shape, Solana reaches $3.6 billion in total locked value, opening a new blue ocean for Dex lending markets

Solana has become the most explosive infrastructure in on-chain finance, with transaction costs averaging only about $0.001, an final confirmation time of approximately 400 milliseconds, and a record of over a year and a half with 100% uptime. SOL provides optimal efficiency for large-scale financial activities, with its decentralized exchange (DEX) reaching a peak daily trading volume of up to $38 billion, indicating that Solana’s on-chain capital markets are now capable of competing with centralized platforms. This article is excerpted and compiled from RedStone’s latest Solana 2025 Lending Market Report. Pure market observation, not investment advice.

Solana’s main battleground is the lending market, with a total locked value (TVL) of $3.6 billion

As spot and derivatives trading gradually mature, Solana’s next key battleground is the lending market. This sector is not only the core infrastructure of DeFi but also the engine driving the overall on-chain economic scaling. By December 2025, the total locked value in Solana’s lending market has reached $3.6 billion, a growth of approximately 33% year-over-year. In Solana’s high-efficiency environment, the pace of competition is extremely accelerated. New protocols often rise to market leadership within just a few months, a feat almost unimaginable in other blockchain ecosystems.

Rapid iteration and fierce competition have propelled Solana’s DeFi ecosystem toward rapid maturity. Risk management firm Gauntlet currently manages about $140 million in assets on Solana, covering model-verified leveraged strategies, complex delta-neutral positions, and capital allocation across multiple protocols. The existence of such strategies demonstrates that Solana’s market depth and infrastructure are sufficient to support professional-grade operations.

User experience is also evolving rapidly. Take the CASH vault created through collaboration between Gauntlet and Kamino, where complex yield and risk management are encapsulated into an interface close to consumer-grade, allowing ordinary users to participate in strategies once exclusive to professional capital. This “highly complex underlying, extremely simplified surface” design approach is becoming a key feature of Solana DeFi.

Kamino Lend dominates the Solana lending market

According to DeFiLlama data, as of December 2025, Kamino Lend holds a leading share in Solana’s lending market with a TVL of $3.5 billion. Its modular architecture is conceptually similar to Morpho’s DeFi model but built independently. The protocol underwent a v2 upgrade in May 2025, introducing a two-layer structure: a permissionless market layer that supports the creation of independent markets with customizable risk parameters; and a vault layer, which includes select yield vaults managed by professional risk management institutions such as Gauntlet, Steakhouse Financial, Allez Labs, MEV Capital, and Sentora.

Kamino offers a one-stop DeFi suite through vertical integration of lending, swapping, and liquidity (Kamino Lend, Swap, Liquidity), enhancing user stickiness and consolidating its competitive moat. The protocol actively explores real-world assets (RWA), launching collaborations such as PRIME, Apollo private credit funds, sACRED, and Huma PST. Kamino v2 attracts a large amount of long-tail assets, with syrupUSDC from Maple primarily flowing into the platform. Since its inception, Kamino has undergone 18 audits and formal verifications while maintaining zero bad debts, making it one of the preferred institutional options on Solana.

Jupiter Lend grows rapidly, attracting nearly $1.7 billion in six months

Launched in August 2025, Jupiter Lend quickly accumulated a TVL of $1.65 billion, becoming the fastest-growing lending market on Solana. Developed jointly by Jupiter and Fluid, the protocol employs isolated vaults and re-mortgage structures to improve capital efficiency and effectively manage risk. With a maximum LTV of 95%, a minimum liquidation penalty of 0.1%, and a customized liquidation engine, it significantly reduces bad debt risk. The platform supports over 40 vaults covering stablecoins, BTC, LST, and JUP, and uses automatic routing to optimize yields. Deeply integrated into Jupiter’s DeFi super-application ecosystem, combining DEX aggregation, perpetual contracts, and lending functions, Jupiter Lend attracted nearly $1.7 billion in six months, driven by incentives exceeding $2 million.

Solana is called an Ethereum killer but is now a partner in the competitive chain ecosystem

The rise of Solana is not solely due to technical parameters but is rooted in pragmatic development and an open governance attitude. Since its launch in 2020, it has been regarded as an “Ethereum killer,” but by 2025, this comparison no longer applies. Solana is building its own industry chain, aiming to become a universal capital market capable of hosting various assets and financial activities, even being described as a “decentralized NASDAQ.” Under this philosophy, assets, tools, and users of competing chains are not enemies but are integrated into the same market for free trading.

Stablecoin issuers like Circle and Tether continue to expand supply on Solana

Solana’s openness is especially evident in stablecoin issuance. Major issuers such as Circle and Tether continue to expand the supply of USDC, USDT, EURC on Solana, while also launching more native products. The total stablecoin supply has exceeded $15 billion, making Solana an important hub for fiat-pegged DeFi activities. The market structure has also shifted from early speculative trading focused on speed to a comprehensive financial system covering trading, lending, and derivatives.

Blue-chip crypto assets like wSOL, cbBTC, and wETH are increasing liquidity on Solana, providing greater operational space for circulating lending and leverage strategies, further boosting the currency market size. Meanwhile, tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) is becoming the next growth driver. Securitize has migrated its platform to Solana, and funds and private credit products from institutions like BlackRock, VanEck, and Apollo are launching on the chain. Teams such as Ondo and Backed Finance are also bringing assets like government bonds and stocks on-chain, deeply integrating with Solana’s lending protocols.

Solana is gradually becoming a primary venue for cross-chain assets and new chain tokens trading and deployment. Whether it is liquidity onboarding after new L1 launches or the revival of existing assets like privacy coins, these developments further enrich the collateral and yield sources, creating a positive cycle.

This article “On-Chain NASDAQ Takes Shape, Solana’s $3.6 Billion Total Locked Value, and a New Blue Ocean for Dex Lending Markets” first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.