In Brief:
- Solana dropped its mainnet slot time from 400 milliseconds to 350ms at the start of epoch 1020 on Aug. 21, the first such cut in the network’s history.
- The change is step one of four under SIMD-0525, which maps a path to a 200ms target, with each stage requiring fresh validator approval.
- It landed the same week Securitize brought Neuberger’s $230 billion fixed-income platform onchain and Solana’s tokenized equity supply hit a record $465 million.
Solana reduced its mainnet slot time to 350 milliseconds at the start of epoch 1020 on Aug. 21, the first reduction since the network launched. The 400ms target had governed block production from day one.
The 50ms trim is the first of four steps under SIMD-0525, a proposal approved and merged on May 14 that lays out configurations at 350ms, 300ms, 250ms and 200ms.
The clock just ticked faster.
From a 350ms slot record to healthcare stocks to an actual dinosaur fossil, with $230B of Wall Street fixed income along the way. All of it sounded crazy until this week.
Here's what shipped
Headline News
– Solana reduced its slot time to@SolanaView on X ↗
Jacob Creech, the Solana Foundation’s vice president of technology, announced the change on X, writing that the network is “in a new era of 350ms” and adding, “Next stop, 300ms.”
How the cut shipped
The 350ms feature account activated at slot 440,208,000, the first slot of epoch 1019. A mandatory one-epoch delay follows each activation, so mainnet stayed at an effective 400ms through that epoch before shifting.
Anza’s Agave v4.2 client carries all four stages, each gated to a later epoch so the network can stop if block-skip rates climb. Roughly two-thirds of staked validators must opt in before each step proceeds.
Faster slots mean faster confirmations. They don’t raise the network's overall throughput.
Average slot times sat near 360 milliseconds at press time. Developers haven’t set an activation date for the 300ms step and plan to watch performance at 350ms first.
Testnet activated the 400ms to 350ms cut on Aug. 5 with no breaking changes reported.
Running alongside is Alpenglow, a separate consensus overhaul that entered community validator testing in May. It targets confirmation times of roughly 150ms and removes Proof of History and onchain vote transactions. Anza has called it the largest consensus change in Solana’s history.
Neuberger’s high-yield fund goes multichain
Securitize launched the Neuberger Securitize High Income Tokenized Fund, or HINC, on Aug. 18 across Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana and Sui. It’s the first time Neuberger has acted as subadvisor to a tokenized fund.
The firm’s fixed-income platform oversees more than $230 billion. Total assets under management stood at $613 billion as of June 30.
HINC invests primarily in high-yield bonds and can also hold collateralized loan obligations and leveraged loans. The announcement didn’t break out how the portfolio splits across those instruments.
“Launching HINC across Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana and Sui, gives eligible investors access through four leading blockchain networks, supported by Securitize’s regulated, end-to-end tokenization platform,” said Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize.
Securitize Capital serves as investment adviser. Securitize Markets offers interests to accredited investors and qualified purchasers who clear KYC and AML checks, so the tokens won’t circulate freely.
On the same day, Securitize proposed adding HINC to Aave Horizon on Ethereum as supply-only collateral, which would let eligible holders borrow USDC, GHO and RLUSD against it. Tokenized funds have mostly stuck to treasuries and money market strategies until now.
Securitize stock (SECZ) began trading July 2, the first debut to happen simultaneously on the New York Stock Exchange and onchain. The firm gained registered investment advisor status with the SEC last month.
Moderna and Eli Lilly list onchain
Solana’s tokenized equity supply crossed $465 million, an all-time high, after Moderna and Eli Lilly went live through Backpack Securities via the Sunrise liquidity gateway.
Moderna trades as $MRNA and Eli Lilly as $LLY. Each $MRNA token is redeemable 1-to-1 for a traditional Moderna share through Backpack Securities and trades around the clock on Jupiter, Phantom, Raydium and Kamino.
The listing coincided with Moderna and Merck reporting the first positive Phase 3 results for an mRNA cancer therapy.
Backpack Securities opened in June 2026 with tokenized SpaceX shares, listed the same day SpaceX debuted on Nasdaq, and has since added names including Micron. It pulled $1.06 billion in tokenized equities volume on Solana in July.
Tokenized stock volume on Solana reached $4.9 billion in the first half of 2026, six times the $775 million recorded in the second half of 2025. DeFi deposits tied to tokenized stocks total $75.4 million.
And a Triceratops
Jurassic Finance plans to put a museum-grade Triceratops prorsus skull named Deaton onchain. The specimen, found in 1999, retains 60% to 65% of its original bone mass.
Each purchase is structured as a dedicated special purpose vehicle that issues its own SPL token. Deaton’s supply is one million tokens, 95% to investors and 5% to the RAWR treasury.
Authentication, custody and insurance stay off-chain. Only the ownership record sits on Solana.
The project has raised 660,000 USDC since July, with 600,000 USDC going to seller escrow and 60,000 USDC to the treasury. Once a specimen is acquired and placed, museums fund operational overhead in exchange for display rights.
RAWR rose more than 89% in the 24 hours after the announcement.
