Malak Albaw
2 min read
Drift expands DeFi platform on Solana with perpetual, prediction markets, and institutional services originally appeared on TheStreet.
As DeFi matures, the race to offer capital-efficient, real-time trading experiences is intensifying — and one Solana-based protocol is pulling ahead by rethinking what decentralized finance can be.
In a conversation on TheStreet Roundtable, Malak Albaw sat down with Cindy Leow, co-founder and CEO of Drift, to discuss how her team is transforming Drift from a perpetuals exchange into a full-stack platform designed for institutions, prediction markets, and sophisticated traders.
“We’re not just building a place to trade perps,” said Leow. “We’re building a platform where crypto-native and real-world assets converge — with performance, UX, and capital efficiency at the core.”
Built on Solana, Drift benefits from the network’s high-speed, low-cost transactions, enabling a smooth trading experience comparable to centralized exchanges. The platform combines a virtual automated market maker (vAMM) with an order book system to provide traders with both capital efficiency and competitive pricing.
Recognizing growing demand from professional traders, Drift introduced Drift Institutional, a service layer offering enhanced liquidity, advanced APIs, and customized onboarding to accommodate asset managers and trading firms. This strategic move aims to attract more sophisticated market participants to the platform.
Drift recently closed a $25 million Series B funding round, fueling its expansion plans in the competitive DeFi ecosystem. With its diversified product suite—including derivatives, prediction markets, and yield optimization—Drift is positioning itself as a comprehensive DeFi hub on Solana.
As DeFi continues to mature, Drift’s multi-vertical strategy and institutional services highlight its commitment to building scalable, high-performance financial infrastructure. The platform’s growth underscores Solana’s rising prominence as a base for innovative decentralized applications.
Drift expands DeFi platform on Solana with perpetual, prediction markets, and institutional services first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 11, 2025
This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 11, 2025, where it first appeared.
