Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana, stated that applications not operating on the Solana Layer 1 network are not considered part of the Solana ecosystem. This comment followed the announcement by Bulktrade, a perpetuals exchange, regarding its expansion beyond the Solana base layer to support multiple other networks.
Bulktrade, which counts Yakovenko as an angel investor, plans to integrate support for Arc, Tempo, Arbitrum, and HyperEVM. The platform intends to maintain its specialized execution layer, which utilizes a modified Solana validator client and a matching mechanism known as BULKBFT to achieve execution latency of under 40 milliseconds.
The exchange secured $8 million in a seed funding round announced in January 2026. Following the launch of its mainnet beta in early September 2026, the platform reached a cumulative trading volume exceeding $1.3 billion by late October 2026. Open interest grew to between $13 million and $14 million within weeks of the launch.
As of late October 2026, the total value locked on the Bulktrade platform is approximately $8 million. The exchange's strategic shift toward a cross-chain model aims to facilitate liquidity and user acquisition by allowing traders to deposit and withdraw assets from various networks while keeping trading operations within its internal engine.
