Solana RPC — Direct Blockchain Interaction

The Solana JSON-RPC API provides direct read/write access to the blockchain. Use it for account state queries, token balance lookups, transaction building and submission, and program account enumeration. This is the low-level foundation when higher-level APIs (Birdeye, Helius, SolanaTracker) don't have the data you need.

Quick Start

import httpx

RPC = os.getenv("SOLANA_RPC_URL", "https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com")

def rpc_call(method: str, params: list = None) -> dict:
    resp = httpx.post(RPC, json={
        "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1,
        "method": method, "params": params or [],
    }, timeout=30.0)
    return resp.json()

# Get SOL balance
result = rpc_call("getBalance", ["WALLET_PUBKEY"])
sol_balance = result["result"]["value"] / 1e9

# Get latest blockhash
result = rpc_call("getLatestBlockhash")
blockhash = result["result"]["value"]["blockhash"]

RPC Providers

Provider	Free Tier	Paid	Notes
Helius	50K credits/day	$49+/mo	Enhanced RPCs, DAS API
QuickNode	Limited	$49+/mo	Multi-chain, WebSocket
Triton	No free tier	~$300+/mo	Yellowstone gRPC bundled
Shyft	Limited	$49+/mo	Yellowstone gRPC bundled
Alchemy	300M CU/mo	Scaling	Good free tier
Public (mainnet-beta)	Free	—	Rate limited, unreliable

Recommendation: Use Helius or QuickNode for development. Never use public RPC for production trading.

Core Read Methods

Account & Balance

# SOL balance (in lamports, divide by 1e9 for SOL)
getBalance(pubkey, {commitment: "confirmed"})

# Full account info (data, owner, lamports, executable)
getAccountInfo(pubkey, {encoding: "jsonParsed"})

# Multiple accounts in one call
getMultipleAccounts([pubkey1, pubkey2], {encoding: "jsonParsed"})

Token Accounts

# All SPL token accounts owned by a wallet
getTokenAccountsByOwner(wallet_pubkey, {
    "programId": "TokenkegQfeZyiNwAJbNbGKPFXCWuBvf9Ss623VQ5DA"
}, {"encoding": "jsonParsed"})

# Token balance for a specific token account
getTokenAccountBalance(token_account_pubkey)

# Largest token accounts (top holders)
getTokenLargestAccounts(mint_pubkey)

# Total supply of a token
getTokenSupply(mint_pubkey)

Transaction Data

# Get parsed transaction by signature
getTransaction(signature, {
    "encoding": "jsonParsed",
    "maxSupportedTransactionVersion": 0,
})

# Recent transaction signatures for an address
getSignaturesForAddress(pubkey, {
    "limit": 20,
    "before": "optional_signature",  # pagination cursor
})

# Transaction status
getSignatureStatuses([sig1, sig2])

Block & Slot

# Current slot
getSlot({commitment: "confirmed"})

# Block data
getBlock(slot, {
    "encoding": "jsonParsed",
    "transactionDetails": "full",
    "maxSupportedTransactionVersion": 0,
})

# Latest blockhash (needed for tx building)
getLatestBlockhash({commitment: "confirmed"})

# Slot leader schedule
getLeaderSchedule()

Program Accounts

# All accounts owned by a program (with filters)
getProgramAccounts(program_pubkey, {
    "encoding": "jsonParsed",
    "filters": [
        {"dataSize": 165},  # Filter by account data size
        {"memcmp": {         # Filter by data content
            "offset": 32,
            "bytes": "base58_encoded_value",
        }},
    ],
})

Warning: getProgramAccounts without filters can return millions of results and timeout. Always use dataSize and/or memcmp filters.

Priority Fees

# Recent priority fee estimates
getRecentPrioritizationFees([account_pubkey])
# Returns array of { slot, prioritizationFee } for recent slots

# Minimum rent for account
getMinimumBalanceForRentExemption(data_length)

Write Methods

Send Transaction

# Send a signed, serialized transaction
sendTransaction(base64_tx, {
    "encoding": "base64",
    "skipPreflight": False,
    "preflightCommitment": "confirmed",
    "maxRetries": 3,
})

# Simulate before sending
simulateTransaction(base64_tx, {
    "encoding": "base64",
    "sigVerify": False,
    "commitment": "confirmed",
})

Transaction Confirmation

import time

def confirm_transaction(rpc_url: str, signature: str, timeout: float = 30.0) -> bool:
    """Poll for transaction confirmation."""
    start = time.time()
    while time.time() - start < timeout:
        result = rpc_call("getSignatureStatuses", [[signature]])
        statuses = result.get("result", {}).get("value", [None])
        if statuses[0] is not None:
            status = statuses[0]
            if status.get("err"):
                return False
            if status.get("confirmationStatus") in ("confirmed", "finalized"):
                return True
        time.sleep(0.5)
    return False

Commitment Levels

Level	Description	Use When
processed	Single node confirmation	Speed over safety
confirmed	Supermajority (2/3+)	Default for trading
finalized	Maximum supermajority + 31 slots	Critical operations

Always specify commitment explicitly. Default varies by provider.

Common Patterns

Get All Token Holdings for a Wallet

def get_wallet_tokens(wallet: str) -> list[dict]:
    """Get all SPL token holdings with metadata."""
    result = rpc_call("getTokenAccountsByOwner", [
        wallet,
        {"programId": "TokenkegQfeZyiNwAJbNbGKPFXCWuBvf9Ss623VQ5DA"},
        {"encoding": "jsonParsed"},
    ])
    tokens = []
    for acct in result["result"]["value"]:
        info = acct["account"]["data"]["parsed"]["info"]
        tokens.append({
            "mint": info["mint"],
            "amount": int(info["tokenAmount"]["amount"]),
            "decimals": info["tokenAmount"]["decimals"],
            "ui_amount": info["tokenAmount"]["uiAmount"],
        })
    return [t for t in tokens if t["amount"] > 0]

Get Top Holders of a Token

def get_top_holders(mint: str) -> list[dict]:
    """Get the 20 largest holders of a token."""
    result = rpc_call("getTokenLargestAccounts", [mint])
    supply_result = rpc_call("getTokenSupply", [mint])
    total_supply = int(supply_result["result"]["value"]["amount"])

    holders = []
    for acct in result["result"]["value"]:
        amount = int(acct["amount"])
        holders.append({
            "address": acct["address"],
            "amount": amount,
            "decimals": acct["decimals"],
            "ui_amount": acct["uiAmount"],
            "percentage": amount / total_supply * 100 if total_supply > 0 else 0,
        })
    return holders

Batch RPC Calls

def rpc_batch(calls: list[tuple[str, list]]) -> list[dict]:
    """Execute multiple RPC calls in a single HTTP request."""
    payload = [
        {"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": i, "method": method, "params": params}
        for i, (method, params) in enumerate(calls)
    ]
    resp = httpx.post(RPC, json=payload, timeout=30.0)
    results = resp.json()
    results.sort(key=lambda r: r["id"])
    return [r.get("result") for r in results]

Key Program IDs

Program	ID
System	11111111111111111111111111111111
SPL Token	TokenkegQfeZyiNwAJbNbGKPFXCWuBvf9Ss623VQ5DA
Token-2022	TokenzQdBNbLqP5VEhdkAS6EPFLC1PHnBqCXEpPxuEb
Associated Token	ATokenGPvbdGVxr1b2hvZbsiqW5xWH25efTNsLJA8knL
Raydium AMM	675kPX9MHTjS2zt1qfr1NYHuzeLXfQM9H24wFSUt1Mp8
Raydium CLMM	CAMMCzo5YL8w4VFF8KVHrK22GGUsp5VTaW7grrKgrWqK
Orca Whirlpool	whirLbMiicVdio4qvUfM5KAg6Ct8VwpYzGff3uctyCc
Meteora DLMM	LBUZKhRxPF3XUpBCjp4YzTKgLccjZhTSDM9YuVaPwxo
PumpFun	6EF8rrecthR5Dkzon8Nwu78hRvfCKubJ14M5uBEwF6P
Jupiter v6	JUP6LkbZbjS1jKKwapdHNy74zcZ3tLUZoi5QNyVTaV4
Compute Budget	ComputeBudget111111111111111111111111111111

When to Use Direct RPC vs Higher-Level APIs

Need	Use
Token balance check	Direct RPC (getTokenAccountsByOwner)
Top 20 holders	Direct RPC (getTokenLargestAccounts)
Historical OHLCV	Birdeye or SolanaTracker
Parsed transaction history	Helius Enhanced Transactions
Token metadata (name, image)	Helius DAS API
Real-time streaming	Yellowstone gRPC
Wallet PnL tracking	SolanaTracker
Token risk scoring	SolanaTracker
Cross-chain data	DexScreener or CoinGecko

Files

References

• references/methods.md — Complete RPC method reference with parameters and response schemas
• references/error_handling.md — Error codes, rate limits, timeout handling, retry strategies
• references/providers.md — RPC provider comparison with pricing and features

Scripts

• scripts/wallet_scanner.py — Scan wallet for all token holdings with balances
• scripts/token_holders.py — Get top holders and concentration metrics for any token