The Solana Foundation has announced that several global financial firms, including Mastercard, Worldpay and Western Union, are among the first users of its newly introduced Solana Developer Platform (SDP), as it seeks to expand enterprise adoption of its blockchain.

Unveiled on Tuesday, the platform is designed to provide a unified interface that allows enterprise developers to build applications directly on the network of Solana.

A key focus of the platform is real-world asset tokenization, particularly stablecoins, a sector currently valued at around $328 billion, according to rwa.xyz. While Ethereum continues to dominate this space with more than half of the total value, Solana currently holds approximately 6.3% of the tokenized real-world asset market. “The early interest we’ve seen from enterprises and institutions signals strong demand,” said Catherine Gu, head of product at the Solana Foundation.

The SDP will launch with three primary components. These include an issuance module for deploying tokenized assets, a payments module designed to support both fiat and stablecoin transactions, and a trading module, expected later this year, which will enable features such as atomic swaps, vaults and onchain foreign exchange. Among the early adopters, Mastercard is exploring stablecoin settlement, Worldpay is focusing on merchant payments and settlement, and Western Union is testing cross-border payment use cases.

Enterprise strategy builds on previous upgrades

Solana’s push into institutional markets builds on earlier technical improvements. The network underwent the Alpenglow upgrade in 2025, which significantly increased transaction throughput and aimed to make the infrastructure more suitable for enterprise use.

In December, Visa also expanded its involvement by enabling USDC settlement for US banks on the Solana blockchain. Industry participants view these developments as part of a broader shift toward practical applications of digital assets within existing financial systems.

“The next phase of digital asset innovation will be defined by practical use cases that integrate seamlessly with existing financial systems,” said Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of blockchain and digital assets at Mastercard.

Western Union also emphasized that the new platform is intended to complement, rather than replace, its existing infrastructure. “not a replacement for our network,” Malcolm Clarke, vice president of digital assets at Western Union, said, adding that it provides opportunities to expand cross-border payment capabilities.

Competition intensifies in enterprise blockchain space

Despite the momentum, Solana is entering a highly competitive market for enterprise blockchain solutions. The Ethereum ecosystem already offers several established platforms targeting similar use cases. Consensys’ Infura provides scalable API infrastructure supporting thousands of decentralized applications, while its Linea layer-2 network is positioned as an institutional gateway to crypto.

Coinbase’s Base network also offers modular tools for payments, checkout and commerce, directly competing with SDP’s payment-focused features. At the same time, Ripple continues to develop enterprise-oriented blockchain solutions such as the XRP Ledger, with a focus on becoming a standard for cross-border financial transactions.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/solana-brings-mastercard-western-union-new-dev-platform

https://app.rwa.xyz/