Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko says apps not running on the L1 are not really on Solana, and an exchange he backed is now testing that idea
Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has a clear view on who counts as part of the network. If an app isn’t running on Solana’s base layer, he says, it isn’t on Solana.
The comment came on October 29, 2026, after Bulktrade announced it would expand beyond its Solana Layer 1 setup. The awkward part: Yakovenko is one of the exchange’s angel investors.
“If it’s not on the L1, it’s not on solana and it’s on its own L1.”
What Bulktrade actually announced
Bulktrade describes itself as a high-performance perpetuals exchange. Perpetuals, or perps, are futures contracts with no expiry date, and they have become one of the most competitive products in decentralized finance.
The platform’s new plan is to support funding and withdrawals from several networks. The list includes Arc, Tempo, Arbitrum, and HyperEVM.
Bulktrade intends to keep its specialized execution layer in place while doing this. Users on other chains would be able to bring capital in and take it out, while trading itself stays inside Bulktrade’s own engine.
That execution layer is where the Solana question gets complicated. Bulktrade runs on a modified Solana validator client paired with a matching mechanism called BULKBFT, which it uses to speed up trading.
Validator clients are the software that processes and confirms transactions on a blockchain. Bulktrade took Solana’s version, adjusted it, and built its own matching system on top.
The result is execution latency below 40 milliseconds. Some figures put transaction execution between 5 and 20 milliseconds.
The numbers behind the beta
Bulktrade has not been around long. It raised $8 million in a seed round announced in January 2026, with Yakovenko participating as an angel investor.
Its mainnet beta went live in early September 2026. Since then, growth has been quick.
Cumulative trading volume passed $1.3 billion by late October 2026. Open interest climbed from approximately $1.4 million to between $13 million and $14 million within weeks of the beta launch.
Total value locked on the platform sits at approximately $8 million as of late October 2026.
A purist debate with real stakes
Yakovenko’s reaction surfaced a divide that has been simmering in the Solana community. On one side are purists who want projects to be native to the L1. On the other are builders open to cross-chain designs that borrow Solana’s technology without living entirely on its main network.
An app that runs a modified copy of Solana’s software in its own environment may look like Solana. By Yakovenko’s standard, though, it is effectively a separate chain.
Bulktrade’s move toward Arc, Tempo, Arbitrum, and HyperEVM reads like a bet on the cross-chain view. It wants liquidity from wherever traders already keep their funds.
What this means for Solana and multichain exchanges
For Solana, the episode raises a branding question. If projects can take the Solana validator client, modify it, and run their own execution layer, the network’s technology could spread further than the network itself.
Yakovenko’s line suggests he wants the community to keep those two things separate. Using Solana’s tools is one thing, and being part of Solana is another.
For Bulktrade, the stakes are about perception and positioning. A perps exchange marketed partly on its Solana roots now has a high-profile voice saying it does not qualify.
The multichain funding plan could help with user acquisition and liquidity, since traders on Arbitrum or HyperEVM would not need to move assets onto Solana first. Tension within the Solana community could also shape how multichain exchanges are perceived and accepted.
