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Your Go To Guide on How You Can Control Solana Assets Directly from ICP

ICPSquad Team
ICPSquad Team

The Internet Computer (ICP) has a feature that allows anyone to manage Solana tokens and NFTs using ICP smart contracts, eliminating risky bridges and painful workarounds. This brings a true multi-chain experience directly to the ICP ecosystem and opens the door for cross-chain decentralised applications and new financial products powered by trusted on-chain logic.

How Does ICP Actually Control Solana Assets?

ICP canisters now interact natively with Solana's blockchain by signing and broadcasting transactions, reading wallet balances, and automating asset transfers using secure, decentralized cryptography. This is achieved through ICP’s Chain Fusion tech, which aggregates connections to multiple Solana RPC endpoints for redundancy. All critical transaction logic, like transferring SOL or SPL tokens, happens directly on ICP, making the process seamless and transparent.

  • No need for third-party bridges or off-chain bots.

  • Redundant RPC connections mean transactions are faster and more reliable.

Real-World Uses: What Can Be Built?

The fusion of Solana and ICP lets developers and users take advantage of the best features from both blockchains. Exciting possibilities include:

  • Automated NFT trading strategies across marketplaces.

  • Decentralized finance tools that combine Solana’s liquidity with ICP’s speed and governance.

  • Cross-chain wallets built entirely as smart contracts, enabling multi-token management and programmable asset transfers.

Developers can even run custom asset management logic in Rust or Motoko, governing who, how, and when assets move, all from an ICP dApp interface.

Step-by-Step Process

1. Deploy an ICP Canister with Solana Integration

Developers or users start by deploying a smart contract canister (an ICP canister) that integrates with the SOL RPC canister. The canister architecture allows ICP apps to send requests via HTTPS outcalls directly to Solana’s JSON-RPC endpoints—services that process blockchain data and transactions. This setup is reusable and controlled transparently on ICP governance.

2. Generate and Manage Solana Keys Securely

The ICP Wallet Canister manages Solana addresses as well as the cryptographic keys needed to sign Solana transactions. Keys are generated using Ed25519 cryptography, and signing is performed with ICP’s threshold Schnorr protocol—meaning private keys are secured and split across the network, not exposed or centralized.

Key technical steps:

  • The ICP canister generates a new Solana public/private key pair for each user (using chain-key technology).

  • The private key is securely stored on the ICP platform, distributed among subnet nodes, so no single entity can access it.

3. Signing and Sending Solana Transactions

Transactions such as sending SOL or SPL tokens (e.g., USDC), or managing NFTs, are signed right on the Internet Computer. Using the threshold key management, the canister creates and signs raw Solana transactions. These are broadcast to the Solana network using HTTPS outcalls via the SOL RPC canister, which aggregates multiple public Solana RPC providers for high availability and redundancy.

  • For each action (send SOL, transfer SPL tokens, read balances), the canister creates an appropriate RPC request, signs it, and sends it to the Solana network.

  • The SOL RPC canister ensures transaction delivery and validates responses using a quorum-based approach.

4. Automating and Customizing Asset Management

ICP canisters can include custom logic for managing who can access assets, when transfers are approved, or reacting to events on Solana. This means builders can set up automated trading bots, permissioned wallets, or multi-signature contracts—all directly on ICP, with full transparency and decentralisation.

  • Developers write code in Rust or Motoko for their canisters to automate cross-chain operations as needed.

  • Any Solana wallet or dApp function can be mirrored, governed, or automated from ICP.

In Practice

From a user’s perspective, participating in this workflow is simple:

  • Use an ICP-powered app that offers Solana integration.

  • Connect or create a Solana wallet/identity within that app.

  • Approve asset management requests (sending, receiving, trading) through the ICP dApp interface.

All intricate security and cross-chain communication are handled behind the scenes, making Solana asset control as easy and secure as managing native ICP assets, but with the added power of multi-chain interoperability.

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