Solana's Network Activity Surges 100% Year-Over-Year, Outpacing Ethereum and Bitcoin

Solana has emerged as a dominant force in the blockchain landscape in 2025, outpacing its rivals in both network activity and decentralized exchange (DEX) volume. The network's real economic value has surged, reaching a peak in January with a single-day high of over $56 million, surpassing the combined activity of Ethereum and Bitcoin. This surge is attributed to the heavy use of Jito’s tipping mechanism, which has revealed a thriving Miner Extractable Value (MEV) landscape. Users are willing to pay extra for faster transaction execution, while baseline fees remain nearly negligible.

Solana's efficiency remains unparalleled. The network continues to handle over 160 million daily transactions with sub-second block times and has not experienced any downtime since early 2024. The upcoming Alpenglow consensus upgrade is expected to cut finality times in half and make it more affordable for new validators to participate, further enhancing the network's performance and accessibility.

In the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, Solana's growth is equally impressive. With the total value locked nearing $9 billion, Solana has become the second-largest DeFi hub after Ethereum. Platforms like Jupiter are dominating on-chain derivatives, and trading bots are executing half of all swaps. Staking via JitoSOL has taken nearly 40% market share, indicating a strong user preference for Solana's staking mechanisms.

Off-chain adoption of Solana is also accelerating. Stablecoin circulation has ballooned to $11.7 billion, and real-world applications like Helium Mobile and Hivemapper are driving usage beyond the crypto-native crowd. From logistics to tokenized assets, Solana is becoming the backbone of a rapidly digitizing economy, integrating blockchain technology into various sectors and driving real-world economic value.