Solana Company (NASDAQ: HSDT) is building a high-speed validator network across four major Asian financial hubs. The expansion marks its first direct push into staking and infrastructure operations in the Asia-Pacific region.
The so-called Pacific Backbone initiative will initially connect Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong through low-latency links designed to improve Solana validation performance. Backed by over $500 million in funding led by Pantera Capital and Summer Capital in September, the firm said it will begin construction immediately, with optimization and new technology upgrades targeted for the second half of 2026.
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The company currently holds more than 2.2 million SOL, making it the second-largest publicly traded holder, according to data. Yet HSDT shares have fallen more than 90% since its September pivot toward a Solana-focused strategy, and were down another 8.3% Monday morning amid broader weakness in crypto-linked equities, including Coinbase and Bitmine.
Cosmo Jiang, general partner at Pantera Capital, said the initiative aims to improve staking economics and diversify revenue streams.
“We believe this investment roadmap will be critical for anyone holding and building on Solana and we expect it to diversify our revenue,” Jiang said, framing infrastructure ownership as a path to capture more value within the staking business.
Project Backbone is intended to reduce staking and validation costs while supporting market makers, high-frequency traders, and decentralized finance applications across APAC. The firm said it plans to expand into DeFi, liquid staking, automated market makers, remote procedure call services, and execution services, with liquidity-related products expected within 12 to 18 months.
Earlier this month, Solana Company partnered with Anchorage Digital and Kamino on a joint venture allowing institutions to borrow against natively staked SOL while maintaining custody. The next test will be whether infrastructure revenue can offset equity market skepticism as Solana’s publicly traded treasury vehicles face compressed valuations.
