Solana Optimistic Network (SOON) has secured a $5 million strategic investment from Jump Crypto, Amber Group, and angel investors, with the goal of moving closer to democratizing institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure and providing professional trading tools for retail users.

Angel investors who participated include Nana Murugesan from zkSync, Kamino Finance cofounder Mark Hull, Switchboard founder Chris Hermida, and Wormhole's Tori Cohen, according to a press release shared with The Block.

SOON is an Ethereum Layer 2 powered by the Solana Virtual Machine. The project has previouslyraised $22 million through an NFT sale ahead of its mainnet launch.

SOON plans to utilize the additional funds to deliver high-performance chains and trading tools in an accelerated timeframe, as well as expand further into the real-world asset space and scale its copy-trading product. "This investment from Jump and Amber underscores growing institutional confidence in SOON’s vision for the ultimate on-chain trading experience," SOON CEO Joanna Zeng said.

"Jump is an industry leader in traditional and digital finance. They are the ideal backer for SOON to explore RWAs, such as on-chain U.S. equities solutions, more innovative trading strategies, and the development of high-performance blockchain infrastructure," Zeng added. "We’re honored to be part of this next chapter with them.”

Likewise, Jump Crypto partner Saurabh Sharma said that “Jump has been contributing, building, and trading in the crypto world for years" and is "excited about SOON’s decoupled SVM stack and its mission to bring SVM superior execution to where the users are.”

The press release also noted that SOON's vision of leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance institutional-grade trading is aligned with Amber Group, which provides AI models that SOON will integrate into its copy-trading platform — with the goal of making AI trading strategies available to a broader audience.

Amber Group's director of asset management, Jerry Zhou, said that “SOON is reshaping the on-chain trading experience in a way that resonates with the next generation of users," adding that "we’re excited to support their vision by bringing our institutional-grade trading expertise and infrastructure to the table."

Solana Optimistic Network Secures $5 Million Strategic Investment from Jump Crypto and Amber Group