R3 and Solana Team Up, Merging TradFi and DeFi 

R3 and Solana Team Up, Merging TradFi and DeFi 
  • R3 and Solana have partnered to bring regulated financial institutions and real-world assets (RWAs) onto Solana’s public blockchain, aiming to bridge TradFi and DeFi ecosystems.
  • The integration enables native interoperability between R3’s Corda platform, private networks, and Solana, supporting tokenized assets, stablecoin settlement, and compliance.
  • R3 announced that Solana Foundation President Lily Liu is joining its board.

Traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) are slowly beginning to merge. Today’s partnership between distributed ledger technology company R3 and Web3 infrastructure player Solana is a step in this direction. The two have teamed up to bring financial institutions and their real-world assets onto Solana’s public blockchain.

R3 was founded in 2014 to offer real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and interoperability solutions. Today, R3 is helping digitize markets by bridging its on-chain RWA ecosystem with DeFi. Today, the company has over $10 billion in regulated assets on-chain across its platforms.

“After years of laying the groundwork, R3 is ready to bring our experience and our network of regulated financial institutions towards a new public future with one of the best and most trusted public ecosystems—Solana,” said R3 CEO David E. Rutter. “This is more than a milestone; it’s a strategic realignment for the entire industry. We know DeFi isn’t coming to TradFi, so it’s up to us to build the connective infrastructure that links these two ecosystems. This is about adapting to deliver real-world utility, institutional-grade readiness, and shaping the long-term future of regulated markets.”

As one of the most used public blockchains, Solana boasts low transaction fees, speed, scalability, and a global ecosystem. With favorable regulation and increased investor confidence, the companies have seen financial institutions become increasingly comfortable leveraging public networks.

Integrating with Solana’s blockchain will enable R3’s on-chain assets to meet the growing demand on public networks and unlock new settlement options like stablecoins. Unlike traditional approaches, R3’s tokenized RWAs can be confirmed directly on Solana Mainnet.

Additionally, Solana and R3 will enable native interoperability between its existing Corda platform, other private networks, and Solana. This will help bridge the gap between permissioned and public blockchain ecosystems, ultimately enabling regulated financial institutions to benefit from the openness and efficiency of Solana while maintaining compliance, security, and control of their assets.  

As part of today’s announcement, Solana Foundation President Lily Liu will join R3’s Board of Directors.

“This is a major step forward for the institutional adoption of public blockchain,” said Liu. “R3’s decision to bring its regulated financial network onto Solana is powerful validation that public blockchains have reached institutional readiness. With Solana’s unmatched performance, enterprise-grade permissioning, and growing roster of regulated assets, we’re not just witnessing convergence between TradFi and DeFi—we’re enabling it. This collaboration signifies that the future of capital markets will be built on public infrastructure. We’re thrilled that the Solana ecosystem is leading the way.”

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: R3

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: R3

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall on September 13-15, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

R3 Sandbox for Digital Currencies is a learning and development platform for CBDC experimentation used by global financial institutions and regulatory bodies.

Features

  • Understand digital currency
  • Transact with CBDCs
  • Access wholesale CBDC SDKs

Why it’s great
The Sandbox for Digital Currencies enables central banks, commercial banks, exchanges, payment providers, and more to collaborate in a ‘ready-made payments ecosystem’ to evaluate CBDCs.

Presenters

Austen Appleby, CBDC Product Strategist
Appleby works with central banks, commercial banks, payments service providers, and large corporates in designing and implementing digital currency solutions.
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Alisa DiCaprio, Head of CBDC Strategies
DiCaprio is the Head CBDC Strategies at R3 in New York City. She is a trade economist with experience in both the public and private sectors on digital transformation.
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