Major Performance Upgrade for Solana Trading Platform
Drift, which has become one of the bigger perpetuals trading platforms on Solana, just rolled out version 3. This isn’t just a minor update—it’s what the team calls their largest performance jump so far. The main goal here is pretty straightforward: make onchain trading feel as quick and smooth as using a centralized exchange.
I think that’s an ambitious target, but the numbers they’re sharing suggest they might be getting close. The rebuilt backend is supposed to deliver trades that are ten times faster than before. That’s a significant improvement if it holds up in practice.
What Users Can Expect
With this new version, about 85% of market orders should fill in under half a second. That’s pretty quick for onchain trading, honestly. For larger trades, slippage is expected to drop to around 0.02%, which could make a real difference for people moving bigger positions.
The tools traders rely on—take-profit and stop-loss orders—will update more quickly too. They’ll operate within a single Solana slot rather than taking several seconds. Oracle prices will refresh on the same timeline, which should help with accuracy.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the gas fee abstraction. Users still won’t have to deal with transaction costs mid-trade, which has been one of Drift’s selling points.
Interface Improvements and Future Plans
Alongside the speed upgrades, there’s a refreshed user interface. The portfolio page is cleaner now, account displays are clearer, and the borrow-lend section has been simplified. These might seem like small changes, but they can add up to a better experience for regular users.
Cindy Leow, a core contributor at Drift, mentioned their commitment to delivering what she called “CEX-level performance on Solana.” The goal, she said, is to build the fastest, most intuitive perpetuals platform in crypto.
Looking ahead, the team has more in the pipeline. They’re working on auto-signing features, easier deposit processes, and isolated margin. A mobile app is eventually planned too.
They’re also testing something called the Drift Liquidity Provider Pool. This would let users supply liquidity to perpetual and spot markets while earning yield. It’s still in testing, but it could become another way for people to participate in the platform’s ecosystem.
All this comes after Drift raised $25 million earlier to build what they described as a ‘super app’ for DeFi trading. Version 3 seems like a step in that direction, though whether it truly reaches that CEX-like smoothness remains to be seen. The proof, as they say, will be in the trading.
