According to Armani Ferrante, CEO of Backpack, the Solana ecosystem is shifting its focus from NFTs and gaming to financial infrastructure, emphasizing decentralized finance, trading, and payments. He describes this as a sign of maturity, with Solana's positioning centered around high-throughput transactions and settlement, or "internet capital markets." Despite the downturn in cryptocurrency prices, Ferrante points out that institutions are showing strong interest in tokenization and stablecoins, and believes that the future of blockchain lies in becoming a neutral settlement layer for assets like stocks. He emphasizes that real-world adoption requires regulatory integration, not regulatory evasion.