Solana March 2025 Update

Momentum Metrics

Solana registered $158M in net bridge inflows from other ecosystems in March 2025. This figure was surpassed by Base, Sonic, and Berachain. Base and Sonic registered over $400M in net bridge inflows, with most inflows coming from Ethereum. Notably, Hyperliquid saw the most net outflows outside of Ethereum due to the JELLY situation and the losses it could have represented for the HLP vault had the oracle price not been overridden. 

Regarding market positioning, SOL-denominated open interest across centralized exchanges is at its second-highest point in history (38.4M SOL), with the highest being a few days before FTX’s collapse, indicating that traders are positioned for a sharp move. On a related note, CME Group debuted SOL futures contracts on March 17, paving the way for a potential spot ETF and showcasing the institutional interest in the asset. Finally, funding rates closed the month in negative territory, suggesting overall bearish sentiment. 

Network Health

SIMD 228: Post-Mortem Analysis of a Failed Proposal

A validator signaling vote for SIMD 228 took place between epoch 753 (March 7) and epoch 755 (March 13), with a record stake participation rate of 74.3%. Before analyzing the voting behavior and insights, we should emphasize that we have discussed SIMD 228 extensively in the past, from the first iteration of the proposal to the final version before it underwent a vote, highlighting the arguments in favor and against and concluding that a market-based emission mechanism represented a significant improvement over the current fixed emission schedule.