Solana Faces Steep Decline in Revenue and DEX Volumes Amid Failed Governance Proposal

March proved to be a challenging month for Solana, as the blockchain platform experienced a significant drop in revenue and decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes. Blockworks Research reported an 87% decline in revenue from January’s all-time high, alongside a 74% decrease in DEX activity. Additionally, the highly anticipated SIMD 228 proposal, which sought to achieve unprecedented stake participation (74.3%), failed to pass despite backing from major institutional players like Coinbase, Kraken, and Bybit. The proposal’s failure highlighted a growing philosophical divide between smaller validators and native builders, further complicating Solana’s path forward.

Solana Market Update: March Was Not Kind

According to Blockworks Research, March was tough for Solana, with revenue dropping 87% from January’s all-time high and DEX volumes decreasing by 74%. The SIMD 228 proposal, which aimed for the highest stake participation in Solana’s history (74.3%), failed to pass despite support from institutional players like Coinbase, Kraken, and Bybit. The proposal sparked a philosophical split between small validators and native builders, with the former opposing and the latter overwhelmingly supporting the change.

Solana Welcomes Open Relayer Innovation

The Solana (SOL) ecosystem has recently seen a series of amendments, upgrades, and integrations. One of the latest is the Open Relayer innovation, an open-sourced protocol by OpenZeppelin still in alpha. This integration gives platform users new capabilities, including the ability to accept any token for fees in the app and access transaction sponsorship without using SOL. Solana developers and users can also integrate with key management services for fee payment.

Solana Rises 14% Amid Trump’s Tariff Pause

Solana (SOL) has seen a significant increase of 14.2% in the past 24 hours following President Donald Trump’s announcement to pause high tariffs on imported goods from countries that haven’t retaliated against the U.S. for 90 days. Trading volumes for SOL skyrocketed by nearly 36% in the past day. Other cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum (ETH), XRP (XRP), and Bitcoin (BTC), also experienced gains of 12.4%, 12.7%, and 7.6%, respectively.

Huma Finance 2.0 Launches on Solana

Huma Finance, the first PayFi Network, has announced the launch of Huma 2.0, a permissionless, compliant, and composable real-yield platform built on Solana. This platform offers global access to Huma’s stable real yield from global payment financing related to everyday commerce and trade activities. By leveraging payment-financing mechanisms, Huma 2.0 broadens individual access to stable, real-world yield, which is historically more common in institutional finance. Simultaneously, the existing permissioned service has been rebranded as Huma Institutional to continue serving institutions and accredited investors. Users can immediately begin depositing on the new Huma 2.0 platform, which offers alternative ways to participate as liquidity providers through two primary modes.