Fogo is a layer 1 blockchain running a custom Firedancer client, built on the Agave open-source framework (the Solana validator client) and enhanced with optimizations specifically for Fogo, serving as the only official client. Developed by Douro Labs, the team behind the Pyth Network, this chain maintains full compatibility with the Solana Virtual Machine. The network launched its mainnet on November 25, 2025, with USDC transfer functionality enabled through Wormhole.
This project aims to bridge the gap between current chain performance and the trading requirements of institutions. Ethereum processes less than 50 transactions per second on its base layer. Solana, designed for high performance, experiences congestion at around 5,000 transactions per second due to client diversity limitations. Traditional financial systems like NASDAQ, CME, and Eurex handle over 100,000 transactions per second.
Firedancer was built by Jump Trading, a company that began electronic arbitrage trading in 1999. The development was led by Kevin Bowers, the Chief Scientist of Jump, who has experience working at D.E. Shaw Research and Los Alamos. The client application is written in C language. At the Breakpoint 2023 conference, the team demonstrated the capability to process 1,000,000 transactions per second per cell, using four CPU cores to maximize the 25Gbps network interface.
