Solana Surpasses Ethereum in RWAs as BlackRock’s BUIDL Drives Growth
The Solana network is beginning to attract increasing amounts of institutional capital, but new data shows that much of the growth remains concentrated in just a few projects.
Summary:
- Solana’s RWA market grew by 43% quarter-over-quarter.
- Solana surpassed Ethereum.
- BUIDL and PRIME account for nearly half of the growth.
For most of 2024 and early 2025, Solana was often labeled a “meme coin network” – and not entirely without reason.
Pump.fun, the dominant launch platform for such projects on the network, generated more than 11.9 million tokens and over $1 billion in total revenue.
Among the most traded assets at the time were Fartcoin, which reached a market capitalization of $2.096 billion in early 2025 according to CoinMarketCap data, as well as the meme coin TRUMP, whose value exceeded $9 billion at its peak. Just one year later, however, the picture looks completely different.
By March 2026, the same network already held $2 billion in tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), with institutional products such as BlackRock’s BUIDL and Ondo’s OUSG standing out behind this growth.
This raises a far more interesting question than the growth itself: what characteristics of Solana allowed speculative meme coins and institutional financial products to coexist on the very same infrastructure?
What Is Actually Behind the 43% Growth
The market capitalization of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) on Solana reached $2 billion as of March 31, 2026. This represents a 43% increase compared to the previous quarter and, for the first time, pushed Solana ahead of Ethereum in terms of total tokenized real-world asset value on-chain – with $1.23 billion versus $1.13 billion according to data from Messari and RWA.xyz.
The data itself, however, hides a much more concentrated reality.
Just two assets – BUIDL and PRIME – account for 44.2% of the entire RWA value on Solana. Both projects grew by more than 100% in a single quarter.
BUIDL, BlackRock’s tokenized fund, reached $525.4 million after growing 105.7% during the quarter. PRIME climbed to $361.2 million following a 124.1% increase.
Together, the two assets added approximately $450 million in just three months. The rest of the market appears significantly slower. SyrupUSDC, with a market value of $299.1 million, grew by only 2.4%. USDY, at $179.9 million, posted growth of just 0.3%, while OUSG, at $71.7 million, added only 0.8%.
ONyc, with a market capitalization of $145.4 million, is the only other asset moving at a similar institutional pace after growing 100.5%.
READ MORE: SEC Set to Unveil Tokenized Stock Rules This Week
The “all others” category, with a combined value of $425.5 million, increased by 13.1%.
This shows that the ecosystem is effectively operating at two different speeds. A handful of large institutional products are expanding rapidly, while a large portion of the remaining assets is barely changing.
That is precisely why the overall 43% growth creates the impression of a much broader market expansion than what is actually happening right now.
Why Institutions Are Choosing Solana Over Ethereum
The choice of Solana by institutional capital is not necessarily an endorsement of the network’s entire ecosystem. Rather, it is an infrastructure decision tied to transaction speed and cost efficiency.
Ironically, the same characteristics that made Pump.fun extremely effective for launching speculative tokens are now making Solana attractive for institutional settlement as well.
The network offers near-zero transaction costs and sub-second transaction finality. These features do not distinguish between meme coins and tokenized assets. The infrastructure functions equally well for both categories of products.
Messari describes Solana as infrastructure that is gradually evolving into a foundational layer for tokenized finance and payments. A key factor here is also the Alpenglow upgrade, which is expected to reduce transaction finality times to approximately 150 milliseconds.
How Sustainable Is the Lead?
Despite the growth, Solana’s lead remains heavily dependent on a few major products. BUIDL alone added approximately $270 million during the quarter in which Solana surpassed Ethereum by $100 million.
This means that the growth of a single product not only supported the lead, but to a large extent actually created it.
Even so, the transition from almost nonexistent institutional RWA presence at the beginning of 2025 to $2 billion by March 2026 already places Solana among the true giants in the segment.
However, this is still not proof of long-term sustainability.
If BUIDL or PRIME move part of their assets to another network or reduce exposure, Solana’s total RWA value could shrink much faster than the rest of the ecosystem would be able to compensate for.
The information presented in this article is intended for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as financial, investment, or trading advice. Coinspress.com does not promote or advocate for any particular investment strategy, asset, or cryptocurrency project. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile and unpredictable – always perform your own research and seek guidance from a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Kosta Gushterov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.
