When we set out to build Envestir, choosing the right blockchain was one of the most important decisions we made. After evaluating multiple options including Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Base, we chose Solana for its unmatched combination of speed, low transaction costs, and growing DeFi ecosystem.
Solana processes transactions at extraordinary speed. The network can handle thousands of transactions per second with block times of approximately 400 milliseconds. For a trading platform, this means your swaps are confirmed almost instantly. Compare this to Ethereum, where transactions can take minutes to confirm and gas fees can spike to tens of dollars during periods of high network activity. On Solana, gas fees are typically less than a fraction of a cent.
The cost efficiency of Solana is critical for our gasless trading model. Because transaction fees are so low, Envestir can afford to sponsor gas costs for every user without it significantly impacting the economics of the platform. If we were built on Ethereum, the cost of sponsoring gas fees for thousands of daily transactions would be prohibitive.
Solana also has the richest DeFi ecosystem for our use case. Jupiter, the leading aggregator on Solana, provides the deep liquidity and optimal routing we need for trading tokenized stocks and cryptocurrencies. The xStock tokens we offer are native to the Solana ecosystem, and the lending protocols that power our Jupiter Earn integration are some of the most established on the network.
The Solana ecosystem is growing rapidly. Developer activity, total value locked in DeFi protocols, and user adoption have all shown strong growth. New projects are launching on Solana regularly, and the community is vibrant and supportive. By building on Solana, Envestir is positioned to take advantage of new protocols, integrations, and opportunities as the ecosystem matures. We believe Solana is the ideal foundation for a next-generation investment platform.