Solana: build vs soft tape

Solana’s builders are getting new money and new security tooling even as the token’s price has drifted lower in April. (alchemy.com) (coingecko.com) Alchemy said on April 9 that it launched a $20 million Solana fund to bring in developers and teams testing infrastructure providers. The program offers three credit tiers: up to $250 for Trial, $500 to $1,000 for Grow, and up to $25,000 for Enterprise. (alchemy.com) Alchemy said the credits last 90 days, come with “no lock-in,” and are open to teams already building on Solana, migrating from another provider, or returning to the network. The company said it will give priority access and 15% more credits to builders from communities including Solana Foundation Superteam and MonkeFoundry. (alchemy.com) The Solana Foundation moved on security three days earlier, on April 6, with a package led by Asymmetric Research. It introduced STRIDE, a review and monitoring program for decentralized finance projects, and SIRN, a Solana Incident Response Network for real-time crisis response. (solana.com) Solana said STRIDE will provide hands-on evaluations and a public repository of findings, plus a 24/7 threat monitoring center for protocols with more than $10 million in total value locked that pass review. For protocols with more than $100 million in total value locked, the foundation said it will also fund formal verification, a math-based way to test smart-contract code against every allowed state. (solana.com) SIRN is a membership network of security firms and researchers that Solana said will be available to all protocols, with priority based on total value locked. Solana named Asymmetric Research, OtterSec, Neodyme, Squads, and ZeroShadow as founding participants. (solana.com) The buildout lands while market signals are softer. CoinGecko data shows Solana closed at $91.64 on March 25 and $81.53 on April 12, a drop of about 11% over that stretch. (coingecko.com) At the same time, Solana’s own February 2026 ecosystem report described network activity moving differently from the broader market. The foundation said SOL-denominated total value locked hit all-time highs in February, real-world-asset market capitalization reached $1.71 billion, and stablecoin transactions topped $650 billion. (solana.com)