Inside the Solana Foundation’s Push to Recruit a Flagship Onchain Perps Exchange

In addition to direct backing, teams can apply for grants through the foundation’s existing programs at solana.org/grants-funding, or via local Superteam chapters .

The Six Selection Priorities, Defined

The initiative sets six explicit criteria that will determine which projects get backing. While several are technical, the list also includes strategic and community-focused requirements :

1. Fully Onchain Execution — Every order submission, oracle update, match, cancellation, and settlement must happen on the Solana blockchain. There’s no room for hybrid off-chain components.
2. Competitive Pricing Through Real Price Discovery — Prices must form from two-sided order flow. Acceptable designs range from order books to RFQ systems with competing makers. Pool-based or deposit-function models are not eligible.
3. Solana-First Design — The protocol must be built specifically for Solana and optimized for its infrastructure, with application revenue routed back to the blockchain from day one.
4. Innovation — The Foundation is not just cloning what exists. It’s looking for novel architectures and ideas that can advance the vision of an on-chain capital market.
5. Experienced Teams — Preference goes to teams migrating from off-chain or hybrid models with a track record of shipping products.
6. Open Source — Core contracts and execution logic must be publicly verifiable.

The Wider Ecosystem Play

The mandate extends beyond the core perpetual protocol. The Foundation is also recruiting teams to build the ecosystem scaffolding, signaling that its ambitions for on-chain derivatives are broader than a single DEX :

• Front-end interfaces and advanced trading UIs
• Vaults and structured products
• Aggregators and routing layers
• Market-making operations
• Social trading applications

A $6.7 Trillion Market and a Dominant Incumbent

Why the urgency? The numbers paint a clear picture. Decentralized perpetual DEX volume surged 346% in 2025, reaching roughly $6.7 trillion annually . By the end of 2025, monthly on-chain perpetual futures volume was running above $1.2 trillion, with DEXs capturing roughly 19-20% of the global crypto futures market by early 2026 .

Hyperliquid is the undisputed leader in this space, regularly capturing 70% or more of all on-chain perpetual volume. In 2025, the platform generated $844 million in revenue from over $2.95 trillion in cumulative trading volume . By comparison, the combined volume of all Solana-based perpetual DEXs was a fraction of that figure—roughly $30 billion in April 2026 .

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has publicly stated that a native perpetual DEX with atomic composability is needed to retain users and trading volume on the chain . This initiative aims to close that gap by directly cultivating the platforms the ecosystem needs to compete.

Regulatory Tailwinds and the CFTC’s Pivot

The initiative arrives at a carefully chosen moment. On May 29, 2026, just days before the Foundation’s announcement, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) signaled a new openness to perpetual crypto futures. Its Division of Clearing and Risk, alongside the Division of Market Oversight and Market Participants Division, issued a staff advisory addressing the risks of 24/7 derivatives trading—a move taken as a regulatory nod to the product class .

Immediately, Coinbase and Kalshi each announced plans to list perpetual crypto futures for U.S. investors on their regulated exchanges, marking the first domestic, regulated access to these instruments . This development is a significant tailwind for Solana’s on-chain pitch. It validates perpetual futures as a legitimate U.S. asset class while simultaneously creating a demand for transparent, onchain alternatives to the new centralized products entering the market.

The Foundation’s message is clear: centralized and hybrid exchanges may be winning on volume today, but the long-term vision of a permissionless global capital market belongs on blockchains. It is now putting its financial weight and engineering resources behind making Solana that home.