🚨 HUGE Milestone 🚨 We just passed $100,000 donated. Not by us - by you. Every SOL you've staked made this happen. You've helped change lives, protect animals, and support incredible causes. This is what it means to stake with purpose ♥️

Every $SPCX is backed by a real SpaceX share, redeemable 1:1 into your brokerage account through @Backpack Securities $SPCX will trade 24/7 on @Solana via @sunrisedefi after Friday’s IPO

Dear Solana: Solana is my favorite blockchain to transact on. It is still one of my favorite assets to trade. And when price is attractive, I still think there is a good case for accumulating it. But I am less bullish on SOL’s next-cycle price targets than I was last time. Last cycle, while everyone was calling for $500 SOL, I publicly said I planned to be out before $250. Solana’s ATH came earlier than BTC and much of the market, but that call ended up being pretty damn close. This time, unless I see a real fundamental shift, I will probably be lowering my targets. As things stand now, I would likely be out before $200 next cycle. That is not because I hate Solana. I don’t. But love is not a sound investment thesis. The reasons are pretty straightforward. Pump fun has historically made up a meaningful chunk of Solana volume, and I believe the pump (and broader memecoin casino) meta is dying. Maybe it evolves. Maybe something replaces it. But pretending that was not a significant driver of activity feels dishonest. Solana DeFi has also taken a serious hit. A lot of Solana DeFi was tied into Drift, and the damage there impacted dozens of protocols. It hurt the broader perception of Solana DeFi. Then there is the capital markets side. A lot of Solana DATs were formed at some of the worst possible price points, then unwound, restructured, or de-risked at some of the worst possible price points. CT forgets everything in 72 hours but institutional capital does not. If a bunch of institutions got dragged into Solana exposure near the highs, then unwound for losses, that leaves a mark. It does not mean they will never touch SOL again. But it does mean the next wave of institutional appetite may not be as easy, clean, or deep as people assume. Then there is the cultural layer. Solana feels disjointed right now. Some of the most prominent Solana voices have spent an incredible amount of time relentlessly shilling an entirely different blockchain. Yes, ZEC is it's own Layer 1. It does not exactly scream focus on Solana itself. It reads as devs thinking their bag is cooked and so they start pumping their next bag. Only now does there finally seem to be real traction around addressing the inflation issue, which should have been more meaningfully a long time ago. But what really read as desperation to me was the @PhoenixTrade push. That moment actually influenced my vision more than any of the others. Look, I have traded over $5B in perps across various protocols. I have tested or used almost every “perp DEX” worth testing. And Phoenix is about as basic as it gets. Yes, the engineering under the hood is interesting. Fine. Mad respect to the builders. But traders do not ultimately care about engineering. They care about three things: Does it work? Can I make money there? Is it safe? And right now, the best Solana-adjacent perps venue is @pacifica_fi . I say Solana-adjacent because it is mostly the stables on-ramp and Solana TVL. It is not generating massive activity for the Solana network itself. And even Pacifica has already talked about building its own L1. (A decision I'm skeptical about, even as a fan) My exact reaction to the huge marketing push on one of the most basic perp dexs I've ever traded on was: they are so very desperate for something to gain traction on Solana it actually scares me. Solana talks a lot about what it wants to be when it grows up. And to be clear, the vision is compelling. The ambition is real. The talent is definitely real. But ambition is not maturity. Every kid wants to be a doctor, an astronaut, or a superhero when they grow up. I care more about what something actually is than what it says it wants to become. So what is my favorite new blockchain? Solana. Because you can still love something and still be rational about it. 🫡 From the depths — The White Whale 🐋

Here we go again..

Historic day for @solana: For the first time ever, HYPE did more spot volume on Solana than all centralized exchanges in the last 24 hours. This is truly insane, IMO. For an asset that didn't exist on Solana until just a few months ago. ZEC also did more volume than all CEXes (other than the binance ZEC/USDT market). BTC also posted almost $200m in 24h volume. My guess: Solana is going to eat global spot trading marketshare in everything. First from CEXes for all crypto assets. Then from trad spot exchanges for equities. Lower fees, self custody assets, fully open & transparent markets that anyone can participate in, and a huge amount of distribution through hundreds of front-ends This is a winning product formula.

the top traded pairs on Solana atm are all majors SOL, HYPE, BTC, ZEC, ETH all with better execution than Binance and with no KYC or withdrawal limits last year, these assets were barely tradeable on Solana Spotlana

BREAKING: The CLARITY Act has cleared the Senate Banking Committee @BankingGOP 🇺🇸 Next steps: full Senate vote, House reconciliation, then the President's desk.

Alpenglow is live on testnet cluster! Screengrab from @pumpkinspool WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE THANK YOU @solana

Big fan of the new necklace @pumpkinspool bought for me from @solanaspaces with @KASTxyz

𝕏 chose Solana. Visa chose Solana. Stripe chose Solana. PayPal chose Solana. CashApp chose Solana. Western Union chose Solana. Just. Choose. Solana.

This past February, Pumpkin’s Pool teamed up with Dundee Elementary for a donation that was all about kids helping cats. Dundee’s Student Council and Kindness Club collected boxes of supplies for Felius Cat Cafe, then brought them over in person. The students got to spend time at the cafe, meet the cats, and learn how Felius takes cats in, cares for them, and helps them find homes. We also made our monthly donation to Felius via the Solana blockchain! It took some time to onboard them to accept payments on Solana, but it was worth the wait! Seeing kids show up with donations for shelter cats was awesome. Being able to pair that with an on-chain donation made it even better!

Good news - we have XDP, zero-copy, and DoubleZero all working together on testnet! 🎉 Kudos to Anza for fixing the bugs!

Far fewer validators are rugging stakers these days. The era of disgruntled SFDP operators is over 🎉 rugalert.pumpkinspool.com

Digital assets are entering a new phase. What once ran in parallel to existing financial systems is increasingly being applied to solve practical, real-world needs — often behind the scenes – from cross-border remittances to B2B money transfers. This creates new opportunities to add value in how money moves globally. Today, we introduced the Mastercard Crypto Partner Program — a global initiative that brings together more than 85 crypto-native companies, payments providers, and financial institutions. Together, we're creating a forum for meaningful dialogue and collaboration as this space continues to mature.

As a reminder, all donations from Pumpkin’s Pool are now paid exclusively on @solana. As we onboard nonprofit organizations to accept payment on @solana, donations are running a couple weeks behind our old schedule. Moving everything fully on-chain takes a little coordination, but it’s worth the extra time.

Solana is built for the agent economy. Now agents can show up with a credential and build a track record.

Shout out to @Jpumpkinspool - she has done a great job assisting organizations in accepting payments on-chain. This month, she onboarded two non-profits and a local business so we can pay on @solana!

We made it into Shinobi's performance pool and won the "Consensus Masters: Best Consensus Voting Percentage" award! xshin.fi/#Validators?pubkey=…

Excited to welcome @pumpkinspool as the latest BAM validator! 💥

Great way to start the new year!

That Breakpoint flu had hands.