Solana has moved from strength to strength in 2023 and Dapps are a big reason why.

This article is a feature review, not financial advice. Web3 and cryptocurrency can be subject to volatile price movements. All users should do their own research concerning the various projects before deciding to use or invest. Don’t take someone else's word for it, make decisions according to what is best for you, the user. And remember, not your keys, not your crypto. Self-custody wherever you can. You’ll thank yourself later on.

As we’ve explored the Solana ecosystem we’ve explored a wide range of platforms across various parts of the market. We’ve explored DeFi, Do to Earn, NFT marketing and more. Today, we’re going to take a look at Step Finance. Step have been huge contributors to the Solana ecosystem, providing numerous resources that help grow the ecosystem, promote growth and onboard new users and projects into the Solana blockchain.

Solana Growth

It’s fair to say over the past few years, Solana has seen its fair share of challenges within the ecosystem. We’ve had massive dips in the price range of SOL before we saw correction at around half of ATH, and the network itself has been married in controversy at times, with outages and issues with throughput. While this has proved controversial for some investors, it’s fair to say that 2023 / 2024 was the year of the bounceback for SOL.

While we saw massive improvement in regards to the price we also saw a massive stress test of the network as well. The launch of the WEN & JUP tokens on SOL, saw many people claiming, trading and adding liquidity to the token. This caused a large influx of use to SOL in a short period and it’s fair to say that while both launches weren’t without their own unique problems the network handled it pretty well, generally speaking.

While Jupiter in particular has received a large amount of attention after its recent airdrop hype, there are a number of other options for trading, liquidity and De-Fi in general. Step, in particular, has provided multiple services within the ecosystem. Branding itself as the “Front Page of Solana” too few people know about the project. So, it’s on us to break it down and get it in front of people's eyes so they can make their own minds up.

The Step Ecosystem

The Step ecosystem is actually pretty big when compared with other options on SOL. Providing swaps, staking, NFT management and transaction tracking, STEP is similar to other De-Fi options, albeit easier to use and with more functionality.

One particularly nice thing about STEP is the referral system that is in place. Designed to reward new users for onboarding other rewards, the referral system allows people to claim step tokens after transactions done by their referred users have been performed.


This isn't the only useful feature, however. Step also provides analytics on token movement and token prices throughout the ecosystem, meaning it is a great option for those who are regularly trading or looking for the hottest new meme coin. These analytics are far more comprehensive than those you’d usually receive, with market movement and cap also included as well as tracking transaction volume through DEX’s, giving an idea of what is happening in the ecosystem as well as where it’s happening.


STEP also tracks the Solana blockchain in general, monitoring throughput in transactions per second, as well as providing a snapshot of the health of the blockchain. This includes the number of currently active validators as well as the volume of fees and the number of projects currently active within the ecosystem. For those of us who are numbers nerds, it’s a great place to grab that data and get a feel for the health of the network in general.

The Step Token

While Step has many benefits on its own one of the biggest is when you hold the STEP token, allowing you to earn interest through staking programs. These tokens when staked, are yield bearing. This means that the worth of the token increases over time, offsetting things like inflation.

The tokens simply need to be staked to be eligible. You won’t need to claim rewards or interact with the ecosystem beyond the initial stake. Rewards will be sent directly to your wallet, beyond that, you’ll be able to use them as you see fit.


STEP and xSTEP aren’t the only tokens available for staking though, as you can stake SOL through the Step Network Validator. With an APY rate of 7.3%, staking your SOL is a great way to get the most out of the tokens you’re holding. While it won’t work for everyone, many will find this to be extremely useful when paired with the other features offered by STEP.

NFT Management

It’s fair to say that Step has made an effort with regards to becoming the “all in one” place for the Solana crowd to hang out. As part of meeting that brief, a short perusal of Step shows that NFT management and galleries are also part of the benefits that can be used within the ecosystem. Providing great analytics and a simple, easy-to-use format means that even the newbies involved in NFT minting and production are in for a quick easy ride when it comes to monitoring their transactions. While you won’t be able to trade and the interface is entirely different from say, something like Tensor, it’s still a great place to create a wallet dashboard that allows you to look at everything that’s happening contextually. While that won’t appeal to all users, personally, we think it’s great!

Anything We Missed?

Often when you’re reviewing a platform and compiling an article it can be a bit difficult to find suitable content and features to sell. It’s pretty rare to find a comprehensively useful platform, however, we’re happy to admit that in this instance STEP is the exception to the rule.

In fact, STEP is so feature-rich that it’s actually quite difficult to cover all these features in a single article. For a writer, this is quite a nice problem to have, and given we’re users of the STEP ecosystem already, the proof of value is in the fact that we’ve been huge advocates of the platform all while trying to onboard others as well. Cool Tools are very much liked in the crypto space and STEP is a very cool tool indeed.

While there are a lot of features left to touch on, the one we’ll leave you with before we drop a referral link is the documentation. While information can be a bit thin for many web3 projects, STEP provides a large array of supporting materials. This means using the ecosystem is far easier. It’s also easier for developers to get their SOL-powered project up and running, which is a good thing for SOL generally speaking.

If we’ve caught your attention with any of these and you liked what you saw, it’s fair to say that checking these out for yourself isn’t going to be time wasted.

I’ve Heard Enough, Onboard Me Already!

So if you’re a SOL fan and you’ve enjoyed the read, the next question you probably have is just where exactly you grab yourself a referral link and onboard yourself into the ecosystem. At this point, you’re lucky because it’s here where we drop on for you to use.

Join the STEP ecosystem via this link

We’d also request that if you like what you saw with regard to the STEP project, you tell or refer others. Not only will there be a financial incentive to it for you, but you’ll also be growing the SOL blockchain and keeping the ecosystem healthy. This provides benefits to everyone involved with SOL, a net positive for the community after all.

And while SOL can attract its fair share of haters we’ll leave you with one last good reason for getting on board.

While SOL has had plenty of volatile movement of late, recently it’s been hovering around the 100 dollar mark. This is a far cry from its all-time high, meaning that there’s plenty of room for movement in the next bull run.


It’s fair to say we’re definitely bullish on SOL. Who wouldn’t be though?

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