Solana is an open-source, highly scalable, third-generation layer-1 blockchain designed to enable fast transaction settlement times, while providing flexible infrastructure and low latency.

SOL is the native cryptocurrency of the Solana blockchain. It plays a key role in maintaining and operating the Solana ecosystem and is used for the payment of network fees, staking and governance. SOL has practical applications in the execution of smart contracts and in the support of decentralized applications (dApps), decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, gaming and NFT marketplaces. 

While the idea and initial work on the project began in 2017, the platform and its native cryptocurrency, SOL, were officially launched in 2020.

Solana is known in the cryptocurrency space because of the short processing times the blockchain offers. Solana can handle up to 65,000 transactions per second (TPS); substantially higher than many other blockchains. This scalability comes from Solana's unique consensus model, which combines Proof of Stake (PoS) and Proof of History (PoH) consensus mechanisms.

Solana's fee model emphasizes lower transaction costs and makes the blockchain both economical and scalable, which is appealing for businesses and individual users.

Solana’s hybrid consensus model ensures efficient transaction processing. Unlike traditional blockchains that use mechanisms like Proof of Work (PoW) or PoS alone, Solana introduces a novel timestamp system, PoH. PoH creates a historical record of all transactions and the sequence of events on the blockchain. This system creates a verifiable and secure timestamp for each transaction without the need for additional verification, significantly speeding up the transaction processing time, while PoS ensures security.

Anatoly Yakovenko, an ex- senior staff engineer manager at Qualcomm and ex- software engineer at Dropbox started working on the Solana project in 2017. He teamed up with his Qualcomm colleague Greg Fitzgerald to co-found Solana Labs and attracted several more former Qualcomm colleagues in the process. After three years of development, the platform and its native cryptocurrency, SOL, were officially launched in March 2020 by the Solana Foundation with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Currently there are 489 million SOL in circulation. SOL does not have a fixed maximum supply, unlike bitcoin, instead, it adopts an inflationary model where new SOL coins are gradually introduced to incentivize network validators and enhance security. The Solana blockchain only issues a set amount of new tokens at the beginning of each year. The starting annual inflation rate in 2020 was 8%, which decreases by 15% every year until it reaches 1.5%, which will be the fixed long-term rate.

With lightning-fast processing times, Solana has been the choice for many institutional projects from small scale to enterprise solutions.

In 2024, Solana emerged as a strong competitor to ethereum in terms of real economic value. This trend is expected to continue into 2025 given fundamental improvements designed to enable Solana to become increasingly competitive. 

Solana’s future performance hinges on multiple factors:

1. Network upgrades: Ongoing improvements could propel transaction throughput and reduce fees. Thanks to fast iteration cycles, a strong core of developers and alignment on value proposition and optimization strategies, Solana is now in a prime position to strengthen its network effects. The most anticipated upgrade for 2025 is Firedancer, which will allow for a more robust multi-client network.

2. Regulatory climate: The trajectory of SEC approvals or delays may heavily influence investor and developer sentiment. Currently, optimism surrounding altcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) applications has fueled bullish sentiment, with Solana and a few other altcoins all having active ETF proposals in progress. This development has bolstered both Solana's and SOL’s attractiveness to institutional investors.

3. Institutional capital: Potential inflows from ETFs and venture capital could solidify SOL’s market position. Despite regulatory uncertainties, institutional interest has grown. Multiple asset managers—including Grayscale, 21Shares, Canary and Bitwise—have filed for Solana-based ETFs. 

4. Meme coin platform: Meme coins have gained recent popularity and have significantly boosted Solana’s network activity by increasing volumes and making it one of the most attractive blockchain ecosystems. Popular meme coins, such as TRUMP, continue to bring in new users, expanding Solana’s community and reinforcing the blockchain’s presence in the crypto space.

5. Non-fungible token (NFT) ecosystems: The Solana blockchain is known for its high-throughput and scalable infrastructure, making it a competitive player in NFT creation and trading. With the capability to handle high-speed and low-cost transactions, Solana has become a platform where NFT artists, collectors and developers can operate. NFTs on Solana are represented as unique digital assets with distinct ownership and metadata. This enables the representation of various digital artifacts like art, music and virtual real estate. Solana's relationship with NFTs represents an intersection between emerging blockchain technology and the growing field of digital assets.

Institutional traders and sophisticated, active individual traders are increasingly looking to add SOL to their portfolios to diversify both their crypto and traditional portfolios. 

As Solana grows further as a platform of choice for DeFi founders, and becomes more attractive to the institutional market, CME Group futures contracts will be key in managing risk and providing trading opportunities. 

Solana futures are regulated, cash-settled contracts that expire on the last Friday of every month to a regulated index with a robust calculation methodology and industry expert oversight.

Solana futures are available in both larger micro-sized versions; SOL (SOL) futures with a  contract multiplier of 500 SOL and Micro SOL (MSL) futures with a contract multiplier of 25 SOL. These two contract sizes allow market participants to choose the level of exposure that best fits their trading strategies and provides more flexibility. One of the biggest advantages of a financially settled futures market is that it removes the cost and hassle of storing and custodying the underlying asset. This gives investors exposure to the price movement of SOL without having to handle the digital asset, or deal with concerns about wallets, prefunding a spot platform, custodians, insurance, theft, hacking or all the things that could present barriers to entry for traditional institutions. Trading via CME Group is also more resistant to flash crashes and exchange outages, which can create additional havoc.

Further, trading on a regulated exchange allows for efficient price discovery of transparent futures, where all participants see the same prices and quotes.

CME Group has established itself as the leading Cryptocurrency futures exchange with Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts. The addition of SOL to our suite of Cryptocurrency products enables traders to gain exposure to additional cryptocurrency markets, while also better managing crypto-related risks.

The contract are USD cash-settled to the CME CF Solana-Dollar Reference Rate, a benchmark index price that is calculated and administered by CF Benchmarks. The regulated reference rate is calculated using aggregated pricing data provided from a number of major cryptocurrency exchanges. This reference rate serves as a once-a-day reference rate of the U.S. dollar price of SOL. 

The addition of listed SOL futures to our time-tested, regulated CME Group derivatives marketplace will help to create a forward curve such that Solana market participants can better manage price risk. 

Solana futures may be transacted five days a week, virtually around the clock on Globex, beginning Sunday evening at 6∶00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) and ending at 5∶00 p.m. ET Friday afternoon. Bilateral transactions such as block trades, BTICs (Basis Trade at Index Close) and EFRPs (exchange for related position), may be negotiated and executed 24/7 if submitted for clearing during the appropriate clearing session.