Why Solana Mobile Is Launching a Token Alongside Its New Android Phone

The second-generation Solana mobile phone, the Solana Seeker, will begin shipping worldwide on August 4, Solana Mobile announced on Wednesday—with plans for a native ecosystem token, SKR. 

The more affordable, Android-based Seeker phone will maintain the Solana Saga’s genesis token and hardware seed vault, while adding newer features such as SeekerID, the SeedVault Wallet, and an improved Solana Dapp Store. 

“We spent the last few years focused on building what we think is the best possible crypto mobile experience,” Solana Mobile GM Emmett Hollyer told Decrypt. “We focused on usability, we’ve focused on security, we’ve focused on giving developers distribution. What we’re doing with this is we’re extending what’s possible, we’re decentralizing it, and we’re growing it with additional devices from other original equipment manufacturers in the future.”

The future, decentralized Solana Mobile ecosystem will be rooted in SKR, the native ecosystem token that will live on Solana’s layer-1 blockchain. He said that the token is designed to anchor a “future of a decentralized mobile platform” around the crypto phones.

But why not just use the existing Solana (SOL) coin?

“We see an opportunity to coordinate growth and change, and we want to make sure that the decisions that are made there are aligned around something that is fundamental to the mobile ecosystem, something that’s purely aligned with that ecosystem and its outcomes,” Hollyer said, adding that it’s critical that SKR be “solely representative of the Solana Mobile platform—and that’s it.”

Specific details about the token launch and how it will be earned have not yet been shared, but the Solana Mobile website indicates that SKR will go “directly to builders and users for ecosystem participation.”

“The token itself is bigger than any one device,” said Hollyer, noting that both the Saga and Seeker and any future devices brought into the Solana Mobile ecosystem will be able to participate in the economy, incentives, and ownership of the platform. 

“We want to make sure that everybody who has joined the ecosystem so far comes along for the ride,” he said. 

Aside from the token, the Seeker’s new infrastructure architecture is set to differentiate the device and Solana Mobile from today’s leading mobile device companies, opening its ecosystem and expanding its platform to allow additional hardware manufacturers. 

“If you look at the existing mobile platform architectures, they are entirely closed. Whoever runs the platform, they manage everything,” said Hollyer. “Our goal is to build something that accomplishes a lot of the same critical outcomes that existing mobile platforms do well, things like trust, things like security… but we want to do that in a way that is decentralized.”

Therefore Solana Mobile introduced TEEPIN, a three-layer architecture model that allows ecosystem actors to participate in a secure and trustless way. 

“TEEPIN represents the next evolution in mobile—a framework where trust isn’t granted by a central authority but verified through cryptography,” said Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder and CEO of Solana Labs, in a statement. “By leveraging secure hardware that already exists on modern smartphones and governing access on-chain, we’re unlocking open innovation, platform ownership, and a decentralized future for mobile.”

With TEEPIN and Solana Mobile’s future decentralized ecosystem, Hollyer said that means builders don’t need to worry about app store rules and fees—and they can be sure their users are real.

The Seeker, which has earned more than 150,000 pre-orders, is still available for pre-order at $500 plus tax, for a limited time according to the Solana Mobile website. It arrives at half the launch price of the original Saga, but with various updates and apparent improvements over the model released in 2023.

“Our emphasis is on making the best possible crypto experience,” said Hollyer. “We think mobile is the way to do it, and we don’t think anybody’s cracked that code yet.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward