Enterprise blockchain company R3 has announced a strategic collaboration with the Solana Foundation to connect its permissioned Corda platform with Solana’s permissionless blockchain network. This partnership signals a major shift for R3, as it will develop an enterprise-grade consensus service directly on Solana’s Layer 1 network. This enables regulated financial institutions to leverage public blockchain infrastructure while adhering to compliance standards essential for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. A key aspect of this alliance is the appointment of Lily Liu, President of the Solana Foundation, to R3’s board of directors, indicating a closer strategic alignment. R3 plans to integrate its regulated asset ecosystem onto Solana’s network, potentially unlocking new liquidity and settlement opportunities for traditional financial institutions and their over $10 billion in on-chain assets. The timing is strategic amid regulatory changes. R3 has been considering options such as investments or sale, with Bloomberg reporting that in October 2024 it held early discussions with Ava Labs, Solana Foundation, and Adhara regarding possible minority investment, joint ventures, or full sale. Although Solana’s investment in R3 is unconfirmed, Liu’s board role suggests deeper collaboration beyond typical technology partnerships, further underscored by the full-time return of R3’s founding CTO Richard Brown. This development coincides with shifting regulatory perspectives on public blockchains. Ten industry bodies representing established institutions have urged the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to revisit its crypto-asset regulations, particularly the treatment of tokenized assets on permissionless blockchains as high risk. Current bank capital requirements for such assets are restrictive, but evolving frameworks could ease these limitations. R3 serves both banks and financial infrastructure providers; banks remain cautious in engaging with public blockchains due to regulatory constraints, while other financial firms face fewer restrictions.

As these regulatory landscapes progress, R3 is well-positioned to support both sectors. R3’s Corda platform already underpins notable institutional distributed ledger technology (DLT) projects, including the HQLAX digital collateral initiative, where Clearstream acts as a trusted service provider. Jens Hachmeister of Clearstream emphasized the significance: “The convergence of public and private blockchains is no longer a future promise – it’s happening now. This is a generational shift in value movement and a pivotal moment for institutions entering crypto. ” Technically, the partnership will deliver a consensus service on Solana that enables native interoperability between Corda and Solana, bridging permissioned and public blockchain ecosystems. Unlike traditional interoperability solutions, private Corda transactions will be confirmed directly on Solana’s mainnet, replacing Corda’s notary nodes. Corda-based assets can settle using Solana stablecoins, with a bridge facilitating asset movement from Corda private chains to Solana. R3 CEO David Rutter, historically critical of Ethereum, chose Solana following extensive evaluation of decentralized protocols. His decision reflects both technical factors and skepticism toward Ethereum, especially after JP Morgan shifted its early interest from R3 toward a permissioned Ethereum variant. Rutter described the partnership as a pragmatic adaptation to market realities: “We know DeFi isn’t coming to TradFi, so it’s up to us to build the connective infrastructure linking these ecosystems. This is about delivering real-world utility, institutional readiness, and shaping the future of regulated markets. ” Overall, this collaboration is a strategic response to institutional finance’s pull toward public blockchain infrastructure, balancing the need for compliance and control that has favored permissioned networks among regulated institutions.