Solana Payments Boom: Teams, Jobs and Investor Signals

Last week was one of the busiest weeks for payments on Solana this year. Samsung said it will add stablecoin transfers on Solana to Samsung Wallet. The Solana Foundation released a new tool for settling big institutional trades. And two well-known DeFi teams merged into one company.

If you want a job in crypto, or you are looking for where money is flowing, this matters. Payments are moving from "nice idea" to real products used by millions of people. Here is what happened, which teams are in the middle of it, and what it could mean for your career or portfolio.

What happened on Solana last week

Samsung Wallet adds USDC on Solana

On 7 October 2026, the Solana Foundation announced that Samsung Wallet and Samsung Pay will support stablecoins on Solana. From the last week of October, eligible users in the United States will be able to send money across borders using USDC.

The feature sits inside the wallet app people already use for cards and boarding passes. It includes on-ramps and off-ramps, so users can convert to and from their local currency. At launch it covers 82 million US Galaxy devices. That is a count of devices, not users, and Samsung has also named Sui, so this is not an exclusive deal. Still, it puts Solana-based dollars in front of a very large mainstream audience.

Stablecoin holders hit a record

Solana now has more stablecoin holders than ever. As of 7 October 2026, more than 14 million addresses held stablecoins on the network. At the end of 2024 the figure was under 4 million.

Other numbers worth knowing:

• Stablecoin supply on Solana is above $15 billion, after a record $17.3 billion in September.
• Solana is the third-largest chain by stablecoin supply, behind Ethereum and Tron.
• Spending on stablecoin-linked cards has passed $1 billion in total.
• The Foundation says Solana has processed more than $5.25 trillion in stablecoin volume in 2026 alone.

One note of caution: an address is not a person, and one user can hold many addresses. But the trend is clearly up.

A new settlement tool for big institutions

On 6 October, the Solana Foundation launched Solana DvP, an open-source "delivery versus payment" program. In plain terms, it lets an asset and the cash for it swap hands in one step, within seconds. Either both sides of the trade happen, or neither does.

J.P. Morgan shared settlement know-how to help shape it. The Foundation says the program has passed external audits and is ready for real funds. It is too early to judge real usage, but it gives banks and asset managers a shared, tested standard instead of building their own.

Two days later, Securitize launched tokens for twelve US stocks on Solana, settling in USDC after KYC. Tokenised stocks need a cash leg, and on Solana that cash leg is increasingly stablecoins.

Teams to watch in Solana payments

Here are teams listed on Solana Teams that are linked to this trend. You can explore more in the Payments category and the Stablecoins & Staking category.

Circle (USDC)

Circle issues USDC, the stablecoin at the centre of the Samsung news. Every new wallet, card or payment app that uses USDC on Solana adds to demand for Circle's product. Circle also issues EURC, a euro stablecoin.

PayPal (PYUSD)

PayPal runs its PYUSD stablecoin on Solana. The Foundation names PayPal, along with Western Union, as major companies already using Solana for stablecoin activity. When household-name firms build on a chain, they need partners, vendors and talent who understand it.

SpherePay

SpherePay builds the plumbing that moves money between banks and stablecoins. Its API lets businesses turn USDC on Solana into US dollars by ACH, wire or SWIFT, or into euros by SEPA. In 2026 it added EURC support and "Onramper Accounts" that turn bank deposits into stablecoins automatically. This kind of on-ramp and off-ramp work is exactly what mainstream products like Samsung Wallet depend on.

Coinflow

Coinflow connects card payments, bank transfers and stablecoin settlement. In August 2026 it joined Rain's Agentic Payments Alliance, a group that also includes Circle, Mastercard, Visa and Solana. The alliance is working on how AI agents will pay for things. That is a young but fast-moving area.

Orca, now part of Formation

On 7 October, Orca and the lending protocol Loopscale merged into a new company called Formation, based in New York and led by CEO Luke Truitt. Both apps keep running as before. Formation wants to help businesses in areas like AI, energy and robotics raise money on-chain. It says it is already working with Figure, Superstate, R3 and Securitize. Orca says it has processed more than $550 billion in trading volume since 2021 (a self-reported figure).

Solana Foundation

The Solana Foundation is behind both the Samsung partnership and the DvP program. Its work on business deals and open standards often shapes where the next wave of hiring happens across the ecosystem.

What this means for job seekers

When a chain moves into payments, the skills in demand change. Trading and DeFi skills still matter, but payments companies also need people who understand the "real world" side of money. Based on the products above, look for roles like:

• Payments and treasury operations: people who know bank rails like ACH, SEPA and SWIFT, and how to reconcile them with on-chain records.
• Compliance and risk: KYC, KYB and licensing work is growing. In the EU, regulator ESMA said on 8 October that MiCA-licensed firms should stop serving customers in non-compliant stablecoins.
• Partnerships and business development: deals like Samsung's need people who can work with large companies.
• Backend and Solana engineers: building APIs, wallets and settlement tools, including work with Token-2022 features used by regulated issuers.
• Product and support roles for consumer wallets and card programs.

You do not need to be a deep crypto expert for many of these jobs. A background in fintech, banking or payments can be a strong starting point.

What this means for investors

For investors, last week showed Solana growing beyond trading. A few signals to track over the coming months:

• Stablecoin supply: it dipped from September's record. Watch whether it climbs again.
• Samsung rollout: how many people actually use the feature after launch, and which countries come next.
• DvP adoption: whether real institutions settle real trades with it.
• Card spending: whether stablecoin card volume keeps growing past $1 billion.

Teams that sit between banks and blockchains, like on-ramp providers and stablecoin issuers, can benefit from this activity whichever app wins. But launches are not the same as usage, so look for real volume before drawing big conclusions. This is not financial advice.

What to do next

Want to find a team building the future of payments on Solana? Browse every listing on the Solana Teams directory, check team pages for careers links, and follow the teams above for news.

Building in Solana payments, stablecoins or anything else? List your team on Solana Teams so job seekers and investors can find you.