Hold onto your hats, crypto enthusiasts, because Solana is strutting its stuff in the crypto world! Despite an 80% nosedive in meme coin trading, Solana’s decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes have been putting up a fight, even managing to outpace Ethereum's trading scene.
VanEck’s latest crypto report spills the beans on how Solana's trading activity has briefly overshadowed Ethereum's whole ecosystem, including its Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks. And here's the kicker: Solana's (SOL) price skyrocketed by a whopping 191% in 2024, with its on-chain revenues shooting up by an eye-popping 700%! Talk about a financial glow-up. One of the reasons for this boom is Solana's pocket-friendly transaction fees, which hang around a mere $0.05 compared to Ethereum's heftier $1.27. This has made it a darling for handling massive trade volumes without breaking a sweat.
Now, meme coins have been quite the cash cow for Solana, raking in a staggering 80% of its revenue. Pump.fun, the meme coin maestro on the network, pocketed over $577 million in fees over just a year. Not too shabby, right?
But it hasn't all been champagne and caviar. The market has had its share of drama with insider trading and sneaky bots snapping up tokens before the average Joe can even blink. The LIBRA coin saga is a case in point, where accusations of market shenanigans left investors nursing some serious losses.
Back in February, the meme coin mania took a hit, causing Solana’s stablecoin transfers to tumble by 80% from January figures. Other numbers took a dive too, with DEX volumes plummeting by 55%, fees collected shrinking by 63%, and MEV activity taking a 63% hit.
Still, Solana isn’t backing down. Its overall trading volumes are going toe-to-toe with the mighty Ethereum. Plus, with a lineup of protocol upgrades on the horizon, Solana’s performance is set to get even snazzier.
On the flip side, Ethereum has been feeling the pinch. Over the past year, gas prices have plunged by 88% and its revenue has taken a 93% hit. The network’s share of the overall blockchain revenue slid from 55% in February 2024 to a modest 24% in February 2025.
VanEck’s crypto whizzes, Matthew Siegel and Patrick Bush, point out that Ethereum's push to move users to Layer 2 solutions has led to a quiet Mainnet. Big players like Uniswap and Ondo have started spreading their wings beyond Ethereum’s borders.
Ethereum's transaction speed is also lagging behind, maxing out at 63 transactions per second (TPS), while Solana is blazing through with a jaw-dropping 4,000 TPS. In a bid to boost its game, Ethereum validators cranked up gas limits by 20% in February, bumping transaction capacity from 30 million to 36 million gas units.
Exciting times await Ethereum with the upcoming Pectra upgrade, which promises tweaks to L2 blob capacity, validator stake limits, and staking processes. Plus, the Ethereum Foundation is rolling out Intents, a snazzy software update to jazz up transaction efficiency across Layer 2 networks.
So, whether you're team Solana or team Ethereum, there’s plenty of action brewing in the crypto world to keep your eyes glued to the charts!
