In brief

  • The Solana Foundation launched Solana DvP, an open-source escrow program giving financial institutions a standardized API for delivery-versus-payment settlement, released under the MIT license with input from J.P. Morgan.
  • The tool compresses the multi-day clearinghouse-and-custodian process into a single atomic transaction where both the asset and payment settle together or neither does.
  • It builds on Solana's growing institutional pull in tokenized assets.

The Solana Foundation is making a direct play for institutional finance, launching an open-source program designed to let banks settle trades on the network with the certainty they expect from traditional markets.

Announced Monday, the tool, called Solana DvP, is an open-source escrow program that gives financial institutions a standardized API for delivery-versus-payment settlement, the bedrock mechanism that ensures an asset and its payment change hands simultaneously.

Released under the permissive MIT license, it aims to bring that settlement guarantee to public blockchain infrastructure as a reusable standard rather than the bespoke smart contracts institutional trades have typically relied on.

The foundation said J.P. Morgan provided input on institutional settlement practices that shaped the design.

"Atomic settlement removes counterparty risk that is inherent in traditional finance," said Catherine Gu, the foundation's head of product for digital assets, adding that the program offers institutions a single open standard "with finality in seconds instead of days."

Rhodel D'souza, J.P. Morgan's head of markets digital assets, said a shared, open standard for atomic delivery-versus-payment is "exactly the kind of foundational infrastructure institutional market participants require."

In conventional markets, delivery-versus-payment runs through a multi-day chain of clearinghouses, depositories and custodians that can tie up capital for a day or two. Solana DvP compresses that into a single atomic transaction, where both legs settle together or neither does. The program supports SPL Token and Token-2022, including extensions regulated issuers depend on like permanent delegate, pausable tokens and transfer hooks, and has undergone external security audits. The foundation said it plans to add privacy features so settlements can be kept confidential.

The launch builds on Solana's growing pull among institutions chasing tokenized real-world assets.

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, in August launched a tokenized money market fund for stablecoin reserves that records ownership on Solana alongside Ethereum, structured to qualify as a reserve asset under the GENIUS Act.

Kraken, meanwhile, has used Solana to offer tokenized U.S. stocks to overseas customers through its xStocks product. Solana has emerged as a leading venue for tokenized equities, and infrastructure like DvP is aimed at deepening that lead by giving regulated players a trusted way to settle on-chain.