Solayer (LAYER): the primary "restacking protocol" in the Solana ecosystem

To reduce the load on blockchain networks, developers are creating Layer-2 or L2 solutions, such as Polygon, Base, and Arbitrum, designed to increase the scalability of L1 platforms. Most L2 networks are aimed at solving Ethereum's scalability problems. However, this article will focus on the Solayer solution, which aims to improve the performance of the Solana blockchain.

What is Solayer?

Solayer is a layer 2 blockchain and restacking protocol released based on the Solana ecosystem. In addition to increasing the scalability of the underlying Solana network, Solayer developers also added new options for applying SPL tokens, especially the native SOL cryptocurrency.

Solayer's core L2 network was launched in May 2024. However, the protocol initially supported only one token, sSOL. Three quarters later, in February 2025, the platform's second native token was released.

How does Solayer work?

The Solana network is one of the highest-performing blockchains, capable of processing up to 65,000 transactions per second (TPS) — more than Visa and Mastercard. But amid the popularity of the Solana blockchain, one of the top six cryptocurrency projects by market capitalization, the number of transactions has grown significantly.

According to the analytical platform GokuStats, the Solana network processes over 30 million daily transactions. The situation has also been exacerbated by the growing popularity of meme token launch platforms such as Pump.Fun.

The Solayer protocol acts as layer two for the Solana blockchain. This means that Solayer processes part of the L2 transactions on its second layer, reducing the load on the main Solana blockchain and thus improving its performance, similar to what happens in Polygon or Optimism (OP Mainnet).

In addition, the Solayer team uses hardware acceleration technologies such as RDMA, InfiniBand, software-defined networking (SDN), and scaling models to achieve high L2 network performance. The developers also introduced their virtual machine model, InfiniSVM, which supports hardware acceleration and enables infinite scaling of Solayer's L2 network. InfiniSVM is compatible with the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), allowing developers to seamlessly adapt their decentralized applications (DApps) for both blockchains.

Thus, according to the Solayer team, the developers have achieved a throughput that can exceed 1 million transactions per second. As of March 2025, the only blockchain network that has achieved such an actual high throughput is TON.

Solayer also operates as a restacking protocol, similar to the well-known Lido Finance and Rocket Pool platforms powered by the Ethereum blockchain. However, unlike these platforms, Solayer runs on its L2 network and does not load the underlying Solana network.

It works like this: users who have deposited their SOL tokens into the staking can, in return, receive sSOL LST tokens (or, as they are also called, liquidity tokens) depending on the amount of Solana cryptocurrency staked.

Due to this, users who are staking SOL don't have to wait for their cryptocurrency to be unlocked. Instead, they can use the tokenized counterpart of sSOL while their cryptocurrency is being staked and generating passive income. Users can also delegate sSOL tokens to generate revenue, as they can delegate SOL cryptocurrency while it is staked.

Solayer token

In addition to sSOL, a wrapped version of the native Solana cryptocurrency, another SPL token in the Solayer ecosystem called LAYER, is issued on the identical blockchain.

A total of 1 billion LAYER tokens have been issued, of which 210 million are already circulating on the crypto market. However, the LAYER token has unlimited issuance, which means that the Solayer team can issue additional tokens in the future, putting pressure on the cryptocurrency's exchange rate.

In the Solayer ecosystem, the LAYER token fulfills the following functions:

Governance: LAYER token holders can participate in voting and influence decisions on the development of the project;
Steaking: users can steak LAYER tokens in the Solayer L2 network, similar to the SOL cryptocurrency in the Solana blockchain, but the mechanism itself will be slightly different;
Payment for gas in transactions on Solayer's L2 network;
Payment for goods (including NFT) and services in various services and decentralized applications in the Solayer ecosystem.

As of March 2025, with a market capitalization of $266 million, the LAYER token is ranked 179th on CoinMarketCap's list of cryptocurrencies, with a value of $1.26. The historical high (ATH) of the LAYER cryptocurrency price was recorded in the first weeks after listing at $1.47, which is only 13% higher than the current value.

At the same time, the price of the LAYER token has more than doubled over the past month despite the correction in the crypto market — indicating high demand among investors for this asset.