Built into the core protocol level, the extensions aim to provide more ways for builders and enterprises to customize token behavior, which may encourage Wall Street to move its plumbing over to crypto rails.  

Builders on Solana have a new set of tools to customize the behavior and economics of on-chain assets, the Solana Foundation announced Wednesday.

The tools are token extensions, an upgrade of the Solana network’s long-standing token standard, SPL, which has dictated how tokens operate within the ecosystem. 

The token extensions are built into the core protocol level so that developers and enterprises can more easily meet compliance obligations by having the capability to add new options and features to both fungible and non-fungible tokens, that “in some cases were previously not possible on public blockchains,” according to the technical paper.

These extensions allow users to transact without revealing the amount transferred using zero-knowledge proofs, charge an automatic fee on each token transfer, incorporate metadata natively into tokens and call specific logic programs when a token is transferred, among other features. The extensions also can be mixed and matched.

Kyle Samani, co-founder and managing partner at crypto investment firm Multicoin Capital, wrote in an X post on Jan. 22, “The importance of @Solana’s upcoming token extensions cannot be overstated for helping Wall Street move from TradFi plumbing to crypto plumbing.”

Cryptocurrency brokerage firm Paxos and GMO Trust, an internet infrastructure firm based in Tokyo, are already using the token extensions to issue stablecoins on Solana, according to the Solana Foundation press release. Yesterday, GMO Trust announced the launch of GYEN, its regulated Japanese yen stablecoin, and ZUSD, its U.S. dollar stablecoin, on the Solana network. 

The price of SOL, the native token for the Solana blockchain, increased 5.1% in the past 24 hours to $86.97, data from CoinGecko shows.