Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, known as Toly, has been developing an open-source framework called Percolator, a high-performance, on-chain perpetual futures decentralized exchange (perps DEX) designed specifically for the Solana blockchain. The project first surfaced publicly in October 2025 when Yakovenko published detailed documentation and code on his GitHub repository. He described it as an experimental, implementation-ready design for a self-custodial perps protocol. Key features include sharded matching engines (‘slabs’) that split the order book into multiple independent, parallel engines.
A Router program coordinates collateral management, portfolio margin netting, position tracking, and atomic cross-slab routing. A Slab program handles per-token or per-market order books, risk management, and settlement, with liquidity providers (LPs) running self-contained slabs. There is emphasis on formal verification for the accounting and risk to prevent withdrawals beyond deposits. Fully on-chain execution aims to compete with established perps platforms by offering Solana-native speed, low fees, and decentralization.
Yakovenko framed Percolator as an experiment, involving AI tools like Claude for code generation, and invited developers to fork, build on, or even ‘steal’ ideas to spur competition. He clarified it wasn’t an immediate product launch but a test of concepts such as prop AMM-style competition for perps with shared risk pools. The core framework remains under development and in experimental stages on GitHub, with ongoing updates and community discussion. No full mainnet launch has occurred yet, but it has inspired community forks and related experiments, including memecoin integrations on devnet.
If fully realized, Percolator could significantly boost Solana’s derivatives trading capabilities by making high-performance perps native to the L1. Percolator reimagines the traditional single-engine design by dividing orders across multiple slabs that operate in parallel, coordinated by a central router. Solana can process many unrelated slabs at once — dramatically higher TPS for perps trading. Liquidity might split across slabs, though the design aims to attract the best-performing slabs through flow. Percolator is essentially parallel, independent mini-exchanges (slabs) coordinated by a secure router. This architecture aims to deliver CEX-like speed with a decentralized, on-chain design. While liquidity could split across many slabs, the model seeks to attract the best-performing slabs through flow. Overall, Percolator represents a bold architectural experiment within Solana’s expanding DeFi ecosystem.
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