Citi, Solana and the Internet Capital Market: Real Deal or Gimmick?

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Everyone’s gossiping about Solana as if it’s the new season’s must-have accessory. Big names are backing the network and the transaction numbers are so dramatic they could star in their own soap. So what’s really going on here, darling?

Let’s break it down with a cup of tea and a dash of skepticism.

Solana’s big moment

Banking giant Citi has just run an internal tokenization proof-of-concept on Solana, in cahoots with PwC. The test pretended to manage the full lifecycle of tokenized bills of exchange-from issuance and distribution to settlement-in a controlled environment. It’s basically TradFi in a blockchain bowtie.

The aim was to see if traditional financial instruments could strut onto the blockchain catwalk in the real world, not just in a spreadsheet with pretty colours.

Meanwhile, Solana has been flexing its scale like it owns the gym. Recent data from Token Terminal show the network handling about three times more daily transactions than Ethereum [ETH]-and that’s not a small flex.

That lead is bigger than Ethereum’s mainnet and all of its Layer 2 networks combined, which is either very impressive or a sign you should recalibrate your expectations and perhaps your Sharpe ratio.

Where does Solana stand?

According to DeFiLlama, Solana’s total value locked (TVL) was around $6.36 billion at the time of writing. While that’s below its late-2025 highs, activity across DEXs was strong with roughly $3.72 billion in DEX volume. It’s the sort of figure that makes you nod, sip your latte, and pretend you’re not adding to the hype.

Perpetual futures volume is also notable, coming in at about $1.45 billion-enough to make even the most grounded person glance at their risk dashboard with a raised eyebrow and a sigh.

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2026-02-13 03:33