When the World Series of Poker (WSOP) partnered with the Solana Foundation this summer, it was more than a regular sponsorship deal.
Solana secured perhaps one of the biggest mainstream crypto partnerships of the year, putting the blockchain and its cryptocurrency directly in front of one of the largest poker audiences in the world.
And it appears players actually used it. During the WSOP 2026 series, Solana was behind roughly one in every 40 entries, while the money processed through its payment system represented around one in every 23 dollars spent on tournament buy-ins.
This Solana deal gave WSOP players a new way to interact with cryptocurrency, allowing them to use Solana-based assets to buy into events at the series. For the first time, players could buy into WSOP tournaments using SOL, USDC, and USDT, with zero fees, directly through the WSOP Live app, previously known as WSOP+.
That gave the partnership a practical purpose from the start. Rather than simply putting the Solana logo around the tables and other WSOP branding, players could actually use the technology to move money into the series and pay their tournament buy-ins.
The partnership could go a step further during the upcoming WSOP Paradise festival in December. Players are expected to have the option of receiving tournament winnings in stablecoins, potentially allowing them to get paid much faster than through traditional payment methods.
For anyone less familiar with cryptocurrency, Solana is a public blockchain platform designed to handle transactions at high speeds and relatively low costs. Its native cryptocurrency is SOL, while the network is also widely used for decentralized finance, NFTs and decentralized applications. It is built to process transactions much faster than older networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
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More Than Branding
The relationship was not simply a case of Solana paying for its name to appear around the WSOP.
In return for bringing its payment technology into the series, Solana received extensive exposure throughout the WSOP in Las Vegas. Its branding appeared prominently around the festival, including at the tables, while the partnership also produced a dedicated Solana Showdown special event. The winner received a customized WSOP bracelet carrying Solana branding.
According to PokerNews, the deal was particularly notable because it marked the first time in 15 years that the WSOP broadcast had a headline sponsor, and only the third such sponsor in the series’ 59-year history.
That naturally raises the question of whether the partnership actually changed how players paid for their entries, or whether it was primarily a marketing exercise for Solana.
The numbers suggest there was plenty of actual usage.
According to Solana Chief Product Officer Vibhu Norby, who quoted my “WSOP 2026 by the numbers” tweet on X, Solana processed 6,176 entries during its first year of the partnership and handled $22,889,450 in payments across the series.
“I don’t know if you saw, but we processed $23 million of Solana-based payments into the World Series this year,” Norby told co-hosts Chad Holloway and Mike Holtz on the PokerNews Podcast, episode #999.
“This is the first time we’ve ever done this,” Norby said. “We’ve never sponsored anything. We actually don’t even believe in it. The only reason we did this is that we felt there was actually product and things we could do with the industry to make it better. It felt like more than just slapping our logo on something.”
Put against the overall WSOP 2026 numbers, that is a meaningful amount of activity. The series attracted more than 250,000 entries, meaning Solana accounted for roughly 2.5% of all entries, or around one in every 40 entries. But its share of the money spent on buy-ins was considerably higher, with roughly one in every 23 WSOP buy-in dollars going through Solana.
The difference between those two figures is particularly interesting. Solana was used for one in 40 entries, but one in 23 dollars spent on those entries, suggesting that the players using crypto were more heavily represented in tournaments with larger buy-ins.
Norby also revealed that the average buy-in paid through Solana was $3,706, compared with $2,053 for entries paid through other methods. That helps explain the gap, with the average Solana-funded entry costing about 80% more than entries paid through other means. Rather than simply being used across the lower end of the WSOP schedule, Solana appears to have had a stronger presence among players entering more expensive events.
The figures also give a better idea of why the partnership could become more relevant at WSOP events aimed at high-stakes players.
Paradise Should Be Bigger
The Las Vegas series may only have been the first stage of the partnership.
At WSOP Paradise later this year, players are expected to have another option beyond using Solana-based assets to enter tournaments. They will also be able to receive their tournament winnings in stablecoins, potentially making the process of receiving funds considerably quicker than traditional payment methods.
That could be particularly relevant at Paradise, where the tournament schedule is heavily weighted toward larger buy-ins and high-stakes events.
The WSOP Paradise 2026 returns for its fourth installment from December 3 to 17 in the Bahamas, moving from Atlantis to the new Baha Mar venue. While the complete schedule has not yet been announced, WSOP has already revealed some details for this year’s festival.
The series will feature 20 bracelet events, up from the usual 15, while the overall guarantees are set to jump from $70 million to $120 million.
That combination could make Paradise a much better test for Solana’s payment infrastructure.
High-stakes poker has long had a strong connection with cryptocurrency, with plenty of players in the nosebleed and high-roller communities already familiar with digital assets and stablecoins. For those players, being able to use crypto to enter tournaments and potentially receive their winnings in stablecoins is likely to be much more useful than it would be to the average low-stakes tournament player.
The Las Vegas numbers already provide an early indication of this. Solana processed only around 2.5% of entries, but those entries represented close to 5% of the money spent on buy-ins, with the average Solana-funded entry costing substantially more than entries paid through other methods.
Paradise could therefore produce an even larger role for the partnership. With bigger buy-ins, more high rollers and a payment system that could handle both tournament entries and payouts, there is a clear opportunity for Solana to become more deeply integrated into the festival.
The first year has already shown that players are willing to use it. The next question is how much further that usage can go when the WSOP takes its crypto partnership to a festival where the stakes are considerably higher.
