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According to BlockBeats, DeFi Development Corporation, a publicly traded company on the U.S. stock market, has announced an additional purchase of 65,305 SOL tokens, valued at approximately $9.9 million. This acquisition raises the company's total SOL holdings to 317,273 tokens, with an estimated value of $48.2 million.

According to PANews, the Solana Foundation has introduced a new policy aimed at strengthening decentralization within its network. The initiative involves adjustments to the Delegation Program, where for each new validator added, three existing validators will be removed if they have been eligible for Solana Foundation delegation on the mainnet for at least 18 months and have less than 1,000 SOL staked outside of the foundation's delegation. This change is designed to reduce reliance on foundation delegation, encourage community-supported validators, and maintain a more efficient and decentralized network.

According to Odaily, Onchain Lens has reported that a whale has redeemed 49,858 SOL valued at $7.38 million after a five-month dormancy. This transaction results in a loss of $4.17 million for the whale.

SOL's Staked Value Flips ETH—But Not Everyone's ConvincedSolana briefly overtook Ethereum in terms of total staked market cap, igniting a heated debate among analysts and investors. While some viewed the milestone as a major achievement for Solana, others questioned whether the network’s staking dominance could be a long-term drawback.As of April 20, over $53.9 billion worth of SOL was staked on the Solana network, spread across more than 505,000 unique wallets, according to blockchain data. The network currently offers an annualized staking yield of 8.31% — a rate that significantly outpaces Ethereum's 2.98%.This staked value briefly edged past Ethereum’s $53.93 billion in locked ETH, despite Ethereum having more than 34.7 million staked tokens, per Beaconcha.in.Why Did Solana Overtake Ethereum in Staking Value?The flippening was driven largely by SOL's outsized price performance over the past two years. Since June 2023, the SOL/ETH price ratio has surged nearly 10x, climbing from 0.0088 to 0.0866, according to CoinGecko.Yet, not everyone sees this shift as a bullish development.High Staking Rewards May Be Hurting Solana DeFiIndustry observers argue that Solana’s generous staking yield may actually be pulling users away from DeFi, diminishing capital availability for protocols across the network.“Solana having 65% of its market cap staked means there's no other use of its token. It's actually bearish,” said JC, a developer at Builda Protocol, on X.Tushar Jain, Managing Partner at Multicoin Capital, echoed the concern, stating it’s irrational to lock funds into DeFi protocols when staking offers a higher return.“It doesn’t make sense for you to provide liquidity on a SOL/USDC AMM when that might earn you 5%, but staking earns you 7%,” he said.DeFiLlama data shows that Ethereum leads in DeFi with $50.4 billion in total value locked (TVL), compared to Solana’s $8.85 billion. In liquid staking, Ethereum again dominates, boasting $21.5 billion in liquid staked ETH versus Solana’s $7.2 billion in liquid SOL.Staking Debate: Is Solana Truly Secure?Solana’s staking model is also under fire for its lack of automatic slashing penalties — a key feature that punishes bad behavior in Ethereum’s staking architecture.“It’s ironic to call it staking when there is no slashing. What’s at stake?” said Ethereum researcher Dankrad Feist in an April 20 post. “Solana has close to zero economic security at the moment.”Solana Labs responded by stating that slashing is possible but not automatic. Punitive action against malicious validators requires a network-wide restart, a process viewed by some as impractical. CEO Anatoly Yakovenko confirmed that a more robust “correlated slashing” model is in development and expected later this year.Meanwhile, Ethereum developers are working on efforts to further decentralize staking, following concerns over Lido’s 88% market share in Ethereum’s liquid staking sector. High entry costs—32 ETH minimum to become a validator—have pushed many users toward centralized staking pools, raising concerns over the network's decentralization trajectory.

According to Cointelegraph, a Solana-based NFT initiative, Dead Bruv, is set to launch a unique project involving the sale of 100,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to fund the purchase of a Cold War-era nuclear bunker located in Rutland, England. The creators of the narrative-driven NFT project, Meatbags, plan to mint these NFTs, with 10,000 being airdropped to current Meatbags holders. The remaining NFTs will be available for purchase starting April 21, priced at $14 each, as announced on the Meatbags X account.The NFT holders will gain access to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) named the Billionaire Bunker Club. This DAO is described as a "fully decentralized, community-governed real-world asset onchain," which will have the authority to decide the future use of the bunker if the acquisition is successful. Proposed ideas for the bunker include transforming it into a "members-only survival resort with Doomsday DJ," hosting end-of-the-world festivals, or converting it into an Airbnb offering caviar tastings and canned bean room service.The bunker, listed by UK online auctioneer SDL Property Auctions, has a guide price of 650,000 British pounds ($862,257) and is scheduled for auction on April 24. The property is situated on 1.4 acres near a former reservoir and has the necessary permissions for conversion into a residential house. Originally constructed in 1960 as a monitoring post during the Cold War, the bunker was decommissioned in 1968. It was one of 1,500 bunkers tasked with reporting nuclear bursts and monitoring radioactive fallout, as noted by SDL Property Auctions.Robert, the pseudonymous co-founder of Dead Bruv, explained in an April 18 statement to X that the initiative began as a joke but evolved into a serious endeavor aimed at "making NFTs fun again." He expressed enthusiasm for the project, highlighting the creative risks and boundary-pushing aspects that initially attracted him to NFTs. "When something comes from a place of, this is completely insane, we gotta do it, that’s when I know we’re onto something," Robert remarked.This venture is not the first instance of a DAO attempting to crowdfund for a high-value purchase. In 2021, ConstitutionDAO raised approximately $47 million in Ether (ETH) to bid on an original copy of the United States Constitution at Sotheby’s auction. Despite their efforts, the DAO was unsuccessful, as the winning bid was $43.2 million, and they were limited to a bid of $43 million due to additional costs. Similarly, LinksDAO successfully acquired Scotland-based Spey Bay Golf Club in May 2023 and added the US-based Hillcrest Country Club to its portfolio in February.

According to PANews, Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik announced on the X platform that Solana's staking market cap has recently surpassed that of Ethereum. Svanevik revealed that Solana's staking market cap reached $53.96 billion, placing it in the top position, while Ethereum's stands at $53.77 billion, ranking second.

According to PANews, cryptocurrency analyst Ali Martinez shared insights on the X platform regarding Solana (SOL). Martinez highlighted that the crucial support level for SOL is currently at $129, while the key resistance level stands at $144. The analyst suggested that any price movement beyond these levels could set the tone for SOL's future trajectory.

The Solana (SOL) to Ethereum (ETH) exchange rate has surged past 0.086, marking a significant milestone in SOL’s ongoing rally relative to ETH. According to Wu Shuo’s latest market update, the SOL/ETH pair is now on track to register its highest daily closing price on record.Over the past 12 months, the SOL/ETH ratio has climbed approximately 85%, reflecting Solana’s growing dominance in the smart contract and decentralised applications space. This performance highlights a broader market shift as Layer-1 alternatives like Solana continue to gain ground on Ethereum’s long-standing dominance.What’s Driving SOL’s Outperformance?Solana’s strong performance can be attributed to:Institutional interest in a potential SOL ETF, bolstered by recent regulatory optimism.Rapid ecosystem growth, including surges in NFT volume, memecoin activity, and GameFi development.Faster transaction speeds and lower fees than Ethereum mainnet enhance user and developer adoption.SOL vs ETH: The Battle of Layer-1sAs of today, SOL/ETH is trading at 0.086, with analysts eyeing a breakout above this level as a signal of continued upward momentum. Should current trends persist, Solana may further challenge Ethereum’s market share, especially among newer decentralized apps and retail users.

According to BlockBeats, data from DeFiLlama reveals that Solana's decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume reached $1.887 billion in the past 24 hours, surpassing Ethereum's DEX trading volume of $1.182 billion. This marks a significant achievement for Solana, positioning it ahead of Ethereum in terms of DEX activity.

According to Foresight News, Lookonchain monitoring has revealed that Galaxy Digital has withdrawn 606,000 SOL tokens, valued at approximately $79.7 million, from exchanges over the past four days. Of this amount, 462,000 SOL tokens, worth around $60 million, have been staked.

According to PANews, Galaxy Research has submitted a proposal to the Solana community aimed at reforming the network's inflation governance through a method called Multi-Election Staking Weight Aggregation (MESA). This mechanism seeks to introduce a market-driven process to optimize the SOL emission curve without relying on single-result voting. The proposed approach does not alter Solana's ultimate goal of achieving a 1.5% inflation rate but could significantly shorten the timeline to reach this target based on community voting outcomes. Galaxy predicts that maintaining the current 15% deflation rate would allow the network to reach the final inflation rate by epoch 2,135, and increasing the deflation rate could advance this timeline. In the existing Solana system, inflation follows a fixed, time-related curve with the aim of achieving a 1.5% final inflation rate. However, Galaxy notes that previous votes have shown a consensus challenge in adjusting parameters, despite a general belief that the inflation rate is higher than necessary. The new proposal offers an alternative by allowing validators to choose from multiple predetermined deflation rates, with results determined by the weighted average of these votes. MESA voting will not dynamically adjust inflation based on real-time metrics but will enforce a fixed anti-inflation trajectory once approved, with the deflation rate adjusted according to the collective opinion of validators.

According to PANews, ARK Invest made significant adjustments to its portfolio on April 17, 2025. The investment firm sold 39,575 shares of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) through its ARKW fund. The transaction, based on the closing price of $84.71 per share, amounted to approximately $3.35 million.In a strategic move, ARK Invest also acquired 475,000 shares of the 3IQ Solana Staking ETF (SOLQ, U) through its ARKW and ARKF funds. The purchase, at the closing price of 14.42 Canadian dollars (approximately $10.42 USD) per share, was valued at around $4.95 million.These transactions reflect ARK Invest's ongoing strategy to diversify its holdings and adjust its exposure to different cryptocurrency assets.

According to Odaily, CI Global Asset Management and Galaxy Asset Management have launched the CI Galaxy Solana ETF, which is now trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. For the first three months, the management fee for the ETF is set at 0%. The ETF, known as SOLX, directly invests in Solana tokens (SOL) and is managed by CI Global Asset Management, with advisory services provided by Galaxy Asset Management.

According to Foresight News, Canadian asset management firm Purpose Investments has announced the launch of the Purpose Solana ETF, trading under the ticker SOLL. The ETF began trading today on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Purpose Investments highlighted that the Solana ETF uniquely combines native staking rewards with the company's proprietary internal staking infrastructure, aiming to offer investors staking returns.

According to PANews, blockchain infrastructure provider Figment has been selected as the staking service provider for 3iQ's newly approved Solana ETF. In a joint statement, the two companies announced that Figment will deliver institutional-grade staking services for 3iQ's Solana Staking ETF, which is set to be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker SOLQ on April 16. Beyond its collaboration with 3iQ, Figment offers staking infrastructure solutions to over 700 clients.

According to BlockBeats, Solana network transactions reached a historic high of 96.1 million on April 11, marking a significant milestone for the blockchain platform.

According to BlockBeats, data from DeFiLlama reveals that Solana's decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume reached $2.509 billion in the past 24 hours, surpassing Ethereum's DEX trading volume of $1.895 billion. This marks a significant achievement for Solana, positioning it ahead of Ethereum in terms of DEX activity.

According to Odaily, Solana engineers have implemented SIMD-0207, increasing the blockchain's block size by 4%. This change allows more data to be packed into Solana blocks, theoretically enabling more transactions to be included in a single block, thereby enhancing the network's transaction throughput. The proposal, initially put forward by Anza engineer Andrew Fitzgerald, has successfully raised Solana's block limit to 50 million CUs, marking a 4% increase. This increase in block limit is a small step in Solana's broader expansion roadmap. Future network governance proposals and upgrades aim for continuous, incremental improvements to support Solana's growth. For instance, SIMD-0256 plans to further raise the block limit to 60 million CUs, representing a 25% increase from the level before SIMD-0207's implementation.

According to BlockBeats, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas announced on social media that Canada is set to introduce a spot Solana ETF this week. Regulatory authorities have already approved several issuers, including Purpose, Evolve, CI, and 3iQ, to proceed with these ETF products. The staking services for these ETFs will be provided by TD Bank.

According to BlockBeats, U.S. listed company Janover Inc. announced on April 11 that it has acquired an additional 44,158 Solana (SOL) tokens, valued at approximately $5 million. This purchase raises Janover's total Solana holdings to 83,084 tokens, with an estimated value of $9.6 million.