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Overview

This guide covers the fundamentals of signing and sending transactions on Solana using the CDP v2 Wallet API. You will learn how to construct transactions, sign them with CDP-managed keys, and submit them to the Solana network.

With CDP, signing keys are securely managed in the platform’s infrastructure. While EVM transactions benefit from a single API that supports signing and broadcasting, Solana requires explicit handling of the transaction lifecycle:

  1. Create transaction: Build a transaction with one or more instructions
  2. Set recent blockhash: Add a recent blockhash for transaction expiry
  3. Sign transaction: Use CDP to sign the serialized transaction
  4. Send transaction: Submit the signed transaction to the network
  5. Confirm transaction: Wait for network confirmation

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Prerequisites

It is assumed you have:

  • Completed the Quickstart guide
  • Basic understanding of Solana accounts
  • Installed dependencies:
    • For TypeScript: @solana/web3.js, @coinbase/cdp-sdk, and dotenv
    • For Python: solana, solders, cdp-sdk, and python-dotenv

The following steps break down the transaction flow into digestible pieces. If you prefer to see the full working code immediately, skip to the Complete example section below.

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1. Create a Solana account

First, create or retrieve a Solana account using CDP. The below example uses solana-devnet and will source SOL from CDP faucet to transfer.

import { CdpClient } from "@coinbase/cdp-sdk";
import "dotenv/config";

const cdp = new CdpClient();

const account = await cdp.solana.createAccount({
  name: "test-sol-account",
});

let fromAddress: string;
fromAddress = account.address;
console.log("Successfully created new SOL account:", fromAddress);

// Request SOL from faucet
const faucetResp = await cdp.solana.requestFaucet({
  address: fromAddress,
  token: "sol",
});
console.log(
  "Successfully requested SOL from faucet:",
  faucetResp.signature
);

​
2. Build the transaction

Prepare a transaction with one or more instructions. Here is a simple SOL transfer (note that we fetch the latest blockhash from the network, which is required for transaction expiry):

import { Connection, PublicKey, SystemProgram, Transaction } from "@solana/web3.js";

const connection = new Connection("https://api.devnet.solana.com");

// Required: Destination address to send SOL to (replace with your recipient)
const destinationAddress = "3KzDtddx4i53FBkvCzuDmRbaMozTZoJBb1TToWhz3JfE";

// Amount of lamports to send (default: 1000 = 0.000001 SOL)
const lamportsToSend = 1000;

// Assumes fromAddress is defined from step 1
let fromAddress: string; // Your Solana account address

const { blockhash } = await connection.getLatestBlockhash();

const transaction = new Transaction();
transaction.add(
  SystemProgram.transfer({
    fromPubkey: new PublicKey(fromAddress),
    toPubkey: new PublicKey(destinationAddress),
    lamports: lamportsToSend,
  })
);

​
3. Set blockhash and serialize

Add a recent blockhash and serialize the transaction for signing:

transaction.recentBlockhash = blockhash;
transaction.feePayer = new PublicKey(fromAddress);

const serializedTx = Buffer.from(
  transaction.serialize({ requireAllSignatures: false })
).toString("base64");

console.log("Transaction serialized successfully");

​
4. Sign the transaction

Use CDP to sign the serialized transaction:

import { CdpClient } from "@coinbase/cdp-sdk";

// Assumes cdp client is initialized from step 1
const cdp = new CdpClient();

const signedTxResponse = await cdp.solana.signTransaction({
  address: fromAddress,
  transaction: serializedTx,
});

const decodedSignedTx = Buffer.from(signedTxResponse.signature, "base64");

​
5. Send and confirm

Submit the signed transaction to the network and wait for confirmation:

const signature = await connection.sendRawTransaction(decodedSignedTx);
console.log("Solana transaction hash:", signature);

console.log("Waiting for transaction to be confirmed");
const latestBlockhash = await connection.getLatestBlockhash();
const confirmation = await connection.confirmTransaction({
  signature,
  blockhash: latestBlockhash.blockhash,
  lastValidBlockHeight: latestBlockhash.lastValidBlockHeight,
});

if (confirmation.value.err) {
  throw new Error(
    `Transaction failed: ${confirmation.value.err.toString()}`
  );
}

console.log(
  "Transaction confirmed:",
  confirmation.value.err ? "failed" : "success"
);
console.log(
  `Transaction explorer link: https://explorer.solana.com/tx/${signature}?cluster=devnet`
);

​
Complete example

More code samples are available in our TypeScript and Python SDK repositories.