Solana Blockchain Adds First Stablecoin Terra to Expand Into The DeFi Space

Solana blockchain and Terra are collaborating to integrate the first stablecoin within Solana’s recently launched mainnet. The US blockchain platform aims to operate at ‘web scale’ while Terra which traces its origin to South Korea is backed by e-commerce giant, TMON. This partnership was announced on April 15 and is expected to improve the fundamentals of both projects.

Were excited to announce our partnership with @terra_money. Together we’re building a new high-speed token bridge that facilitates the transfer of Terra stablecoins into Solana’s dapp ecosystem.https://t.co/KJWODILcDi

— Solana (@solana) April 15, 2020

Though still a young network, Solana has claimed its security, scaling and decentralization features are among the leading in today’s blockchain market. Notably, this initiative went live as late as 2019 after a Multicoin Capital led series A funding. They also winded up a token auction on CoinList this March and consequently got listed on Binance. The firm has since touted its value proposition in handling more than 65,000 transactions per second.

With Terra in the picture, Solana can further expand its smart contract ecosystem as more stakeholders opt for stable payments in a highly volatile market. Raj Gokal, the COO of Solana, echoed these sentiments,

“By bringing stablecoins onto our network, we aim to dramatically expand the design space for developers, opening the door to novel applications that require price-stable payments.”

On the other hand, Terra is set to leverage Solana’s efficiency to further spur its adoption. The project raised a significant $32 million back in 2018 in a funding round led by Binance. Currently, the platform’s payment app dubbed ‘CHAI’ facilitates $3 million in daily transaction volumes while its active users are over 1 million. Terra’s competitive edge is particularly on transaction fees where its 0.5% is much favorable compared to an average 3.5% on normal cards.

Given the new alliance with Solana, the two are set to be integrated through a low latency bridge which will balance token transfers through the ability to mint and burn on either network. Terra’s team has highlighted this will be a major stepping stone to its expansion goals,

“As we continue to grow, we expect demand to expand into new regions and new blockchain ecosystems beyond our own.

Anticipating this, we recognize the priority of building bridges and relationships to grow the reach of Terra’s stablecoins within the Solana ecosystem.”