Solana Co-Founder Backs $8M Bet to Fix Network Congestion with Validator Integration

The Solana-based perpetual contract decentralized exchange (DEX) BULK has secured $8 million in seed funding, led by venture capital firms 6th Man Ventures and Robot Ventures, according to a September 2025 announcement. Additional participants included Big Brain Holdings, Wintermute, and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko. The funding aims to advance BULK’s integration of an execution layer directly into Solana’s validator stack, addressing challenges such as priority fee surges and network congestion. The platform plans to launch a testnet in the coming weeks, with a mainnet rollout scheduled for Q4 2025 Odaily Planet Daily, ^[1].

BULK’s solution targets inefficiencies in Solana’s ecosystem by optimizing transaction execution. By embedding its execution layer into the blockchain’s validator infrastructure, the DEX seeks to reduce latency and improve throughput for perpetual contract trading. This approach aligns with broader trends in decentralized finance (DeFi), where Solana’s high-speed, low-cost network has attracted growing interest in on-chain derivatives. The project’s focus on scalability positions it to compete with existing Solana-based perps DEXs like Drift Protocol and Zeta Markets, which have reported cumulative trading volumes exceeding $1.45 billion and $3.78 billion, respectively GooseFX, ^[3].

The seed round underscores investor confidence in Solana’s DeFi potential. Anatoly Yakovenko’s participation, in particular, highlights the blockchain’s ecosystem alignment with institutional and strategic backers. 6th Man Ventures and Robot Ventures have previously supported early-stage projects in the Solana space, including infrastructure and tooling initiatives. The funding follows a broader surge in capital for Solana-based protocols, with the blockchain raising $374 million across six rounds since 2018, including a $314 million Series C in 2021 led by Andreessen Horowitz Tracxn, ^[2].

BULK’s development timeline reflects urgency in the perps DEX market. While competitors like Jupiter Perps DEX offer up to 100x leverage and AMM-based trading, BULK’s CLOB (Central Limit Order Book) model emphasizes orderbook precision and liquidity depth. The platform’s testnet launch will serve as a critical milestone for validating its execution layer’s performance under real-world conditions. If successful, the project could attract institutional liquidity providers and traders seeking alternatives to centralized exchanges, which dominate the $150 billion perps market GooseFX, ^[3].

The funding also highlights Solana’s ongoing competition with Ethereum for DeFi dominance. While Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade, scheduled for December 2025, aims to enhance scalability via PeerDAS and Verkle Trees, Solana’s native optimizations and lower fees continue to attract developers and users. BULK’s integration with Solana’s validator stack could further differentiate the network’s DeFi offerings, particularly in high-frequency trading and cross-chain use cases.