Solana’s Code Powers These Layer-1 Blockchains—Here’s Who’s Riding the Coattails

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2025-05-06 20:40:16

Solana’s software underpins these layer-1s

Solana isn’t just a blockchain—it’s a blueprint. At least five major layer-1 networks are built on its open-source tech, leveraging its speed and low fees while pretending they invented the wheel.

From DeFi darlings to NFT playgrounds, these chains are proof that imitation isn’t just flattery—it’s a business model. And yes, they’ll still charge you a ’revolutionary’ gas fee for the privilege.

Funny how the ’future of finance’ still runs on copy-paste code—but hey, if it prints, it prints.

Fogo

Fogo is a forthcoming layer-1 that says it wants to push the SVM’s performance to its limits by only running the Firedancer validator client on a permissioned validator set with multi-local consensus.

If that sounds like word salad, just know that Fogo’s bet is that with a fork of Jump’s open-source Firedancer code and a couple tradeoffs around decentralization, Solana’s software can be even more performant.

The layer-1 raised $8 million at a $100 million valuation via the crypto crowdfunding platform Echo.

Pythnet

The popular Solana oracle PYTH runs an SVM app chain where Pyth operators who provide price data run validators, and the protocol aggregates prices.

Pythnet is the oldest on the list: Remarkably, Pyth shipped its SVM chain in August of 2022.

Since it’s a blockchain for data, this chain is less consumer-facing than others, but it’s an interesting decentralized way to stream price data — and the product has been live for nearly three years.

Solayer

Solayer initially fundraised and launched as a Solana restaking protocol, but after Jito entered the restaking race — and as restaking became less buzzy, to put it bluntly — Solayer pivoted to launching its own layer-1 powered by its InfiniSVM.

Solayer’s documentation and leadership have claimed that it can achieve one million transactions per second at points, although some Solana developers dispute Solayer’s performance figures.

JupNet

The Solana DeFi giant Jupiter began teasing JupNet in January as an “omnichain network that aims to aggregate all of crypto in one single decentralized ledger.”

Little is yet known about JupNet, but Jupiter co-founder meow said in a blog post that its so-called Jupiter SVM has validators come to agreement on both internal Solana transactions and external transactions from other blockchains.

Jupiter has greatly expanded its business via acquisitions in recent months, but JupNet may be its most ambitious venture yet.

Cube

Cube Exchange is building an SVM L1, co-founder Bartosz Lipinski confirmed to me in a Telegram message.

Lipinski and co. forked the SVM as part of a product they’ve described as a hybrid centralized-decentralized exchange.

Thru

This one barely counts since Thru will be built on a new virtual machine called the ThruVM, but a lot of the intrigue around this brand new project comes from the fact that its co-founder, Liam Heeger, was previously a CORE engineer working on Solana’s Firedancer client.

So with the Firedancer credentials, Thru ekes out a spot on the list.