Solana Foundation taps Mastercard, Western Union, Worldpay for institutional developer platform

Tech Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Solana Foundation taps Mastercard, Western Union, Worldpay for institutional developer platform The platform is a toolkit that lets enterprises create and scale financial applications on Solana without deep crypto infrastructure expertise. By Margaux Nijkerk | Edited by Stephen Alpher Mar 24, 2026, 1:00 p.m. Make us preferred on Google What to know : New Solana Developer Platform (SDP) lets enterprises build tokenized assets, stablecoins and payment flows via APIs, with AI integrations from OpenAI and Anthropic Early adoption by Mastercard, Western Union and Worldpay highlights growing institutional push toward blockchain-based settlement and payments The Solana Foundation is launching a new developer platform aimed at making it easier for financial institutions to build blockchain-based products, with early users including Mastercard, Western Union and Worldpay. The Solana Developer Platform (SDP), currently available for developers to test, is a toolkit that enables enterprises to create and scale financial applications on Solana without deep crypto infrastructure expertise. The SDP will also integrate AI tools such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex. The platform bundles services from more than 20 infrastructure providers — spanning custody, compliance, wallets and payments — into a single interface, streamlining what has traditionally been a fragmented process for institutions entering the space. At launch, SDP includes two live modules. The issuance module enables companies to create tokenized deposits, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, while the payments module supports fiat and stablecoin flows, including on- and off-ramps and onchain transactions. A trading module is expected later in 2026. The involvement of traditional payments firms underscores growing institutional interest in blockchain-based settlement. Mastercard is exploring stablecoin settlement on Solana, while Western Union is testing cross-border payments on the platform. Worldpay is focusing on merchant settlement and tokenized assets. “As Solana continues to be the most trusted and innovative infrastructure for payments and financial companies worldwide, SDP provides an accessible and familiar experience for institutions and enterprises to start building products on Solana today,” the Solana Foundation wrote in a press release shared with CoinDesk. Read more: Solana Foundation's Liu: Focus on finance, not gaming 'misadventures' Solana News More For You Balancer Labs will shut down as corporate entity became 'a liability' after $110 million exploit By Shaurya Malwa 6 hours ago Co-founder Fernando Martinelli said he considered winding down the entire protocol but decided the team deserved a chance to restructure, with the DAO targeting zero emissions, fee restructuring, and a BAL buyback to offer holders a fair exit. What to know : Balancer Labs, the corporate entity behind the Balancer decentralized exchange, is shutting down after a 2025 exploit created ongoing legal and financial strain, though the protocol will remain online in a leaner form. The project’s total value locked has fallen about 95 percent from a 2021 peak of nearly $3.5 billion to $157 million, prompting an aggressive restructuring that ends BAL emissions, winds down veBAL governance and redirects 100 percent of protocol fees to the DAO treasury. Essential staff will move to a new Balancer OpCo, the product scope will narrow to a handful of core pool types and non-EVM expansion, and a BAL buyback aims to give tokenholders what the founder calls a fair exit if they do not support the revamped protocol. Read full story Latest Crypto News Coinbase says the 'second wave' of institutional money for crypto is here and it is all about yield 17 minutes ago Wall Street broker Bernstein calls bitcoin bottom, keeps $150,000 year-end target 17 minutes ago ParaFi defies crypto market downturn with $125 million raise for new fund: Bloomberg 24 minutes ago New York Stock Exchange taps Securitize to build its tokenized stock platform 29 minutes ago BitGo, Susquehanna Crypto offering institutional OTC access to prediction markets 1 hour ago Bitcoin finds stability at 2023 investor cost basis, echoing past cycle 1 hour ago Top Stories Bitcoin leads crypto rebound to $71,000 as $550 million in shorts liquidated 2 hours ago Balancer Labs will shut down as corporate entity became 'a liability' after $110 million exploit 6 hours ago Here’s how Treasuries could shape Trump’s Iran war and bitcoin moves 5 hours ago Bitcoin's mining concentration just showed up in a rare 2-block reorg 8 hours ago The $75,000 line in the sand: What it’ll take for bitcoin to go "full bull" 1 hour ago Invesco joins tokenization race as it takes over Superstate’s $900 million onchain fund 1 hour ago