Orca Project Update

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Biggest Stories of 2025

• Governance Council Re-election (2026 Term): The community passed a proposal re-electing five incumbent members to the Orca Governance Council for the 2026 term, with two vacancies remaining to be filled via open election 3. (November 12, 2025)
• xORCA Goes Live: The Orca team announced that xORCA is now live, enabling users to stake ORCA before the xORCA/ORCA pool launch on Oct. 1, 2025, to receive xORCA at a 1:1 rate 1. (September 29, 2025)
• Wavebreak Launchpad: Orca launched Wavebreak, a permissionless token launchpad featuring anti-bot technology, a points program, LP rewards, and daily rewards, with tokens distributed via a bonding curve and graduating into a locked full-range Orca Whirlpool once 85 SOL of a token is in existence 4. (July 29, 2025)
• Dynamic Tick Arrays: Orca introduced Dynamic Tick Arrays, reducing initial liquidity pool creation costs by roughly 97% (from $20–$30 down to about $0.30) and enabling full pool creation for under $5 in most cases, without affecting trading behavior 5. (July 7, 2025)
• Adaptive Fee Pools: Orca launched Adaptive Fee Pools, which combine a standard base fee with a dynamic "adaptive" fee that increases alongside market volatility, compensating LPs for increased risk while only charging traders higher fees during volatile markets 6. (June 4, 2025)
• April 2025 Updates: Orca announced updates across governance, platform features, and regulatory efforts, including the approval of a proposal to burn 25 million ORCA tokens (a 25% supply reduction), activate a buyback mechanism using 20% of Whirlpools protocol fees, enhance the Liquidity Terminal, release a CPI integration repository, and fully support Solana's Token Extensions 7. Orca also joined Solana Policy Institute and Superstate in submitting a proposal to the SEC to develop regulatory frameworks for compliant securities issuance and trading on blockchain 7. (May 5, 2025)
• Relinquishment of Governance Control Over Whirlpools: Following approval of a governance proposal, the Orca community agreed to relinquish control of Whirlpools to allow the initial development team to efficiently deploy upgrades and product improvements, including the upcoming xORCA Pool 8. (April 14, 2025)
• Orca Development Team Funding: The Orca DAO approved allocating the entire USDC balance (~$32 million) in the protocol fee treasury wallet to the initial development team — $10 million for incentive-aligned ORCA purchases and ~$19 million (net of taxes) for operational use — after the team had approximately three months of runway remaining 9. (April 14, 2025)
• xORCA Proposal Approved: The Orca DAO approved plans to develop and deploy the xORCA pool, a liquid staking smart contract allowing users to deposit ORCA for xORCA, with 20% of Whirlpools protocol fees used to purchase ORCA on the open market and deposit it into the xORCA pool 2. (April 14, 2025)
• xORCA, Initial Development Team Grant, Buybacks, and Burn Proposal Passes: Voting ended with 100% of votes in favor, entering a two-day cool-off period; the proposal covered the xORCA Pool, fee allocations, the development team grant, transfer of Whirlpools governance control, and the burning of 25 million ORCA tokens (reducing total supply from 100 million to 75 million) 1011. (April 12, 2025)
• Liquidity Locking Tool: Orca launched a Liquidity Locking tool allowing token creators and LPs to create pools with locked liquidity while retaining the ability to harvest yield, supporting only full-range positions that cannot be unlocked once locked 12. (March 10, 2025)
• Council Token Changes (2025 Re-Election): Proposals passed with 100% of votes in favor to mint Council tokens for newly elected members Carl Bergman (Reverie), Chad Miller, and Tim Wescott, and to revoke Council tokens for departing members Larry Sukernik, Wes Tang-Wymer, and Hart Lambur 13141516. (February 24, 2025)