Solana has demonstrated significant growth and scalability, marked by a surge in daily active addresses and transactions, establishing itself as a key player in the blockchain space. Back in October 2024, Solana was toasting a historic win. It surpassed 120 million daily active addresses, a testament to the network’s increasing adoption and user engagement. As of December 2024, that network saw phenomenal growth, recently surpassing 138 million daily transactions. This milestone is a testament to its remarkable capacity to handle intense levels of activity. Though Solana has been riding high on operational successes, its market value has been on a rollercoaster. In November 2024, its price shot up to US$263 before receding back down to around US$188 in April 2025.
The blockchain's ability to process up to 65,000 transactions per second stands in stark contrast to Ethereum's 16 transactions per second, showcasing its superior scalability. Solana’s technical edge powers its monumental expansion. Solana’s growth can largely be attributed to its technological superiority. In just a year, TVL exploded to US$9.5 billion by December 2024. Solana’s protocol has an impressive 83.7% of its revenue being produced from Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications. Other sectors are dominated by wallets at 9.6%, infrastructure at 3.4%, NFTs at 2.2%, and gaming at 0.9%. With over a quarter of the NFT market already in hand, Solana is off to a strong start. In 2023, it has regularly ranked number two and three for NFT sales volume.
Transaction Volume and Network Capacity
Solana’s network has already demonstrated its capacity to process a large volume of transactions per day. Its growing December 2024 record 138 million daily transactions is a tribute to its efficiency and reliability. This massive transaction volume further underscores Solana’s unique ability to support a wide range of applications, from DeFi to NFTs and more.
Solana’s ability to handle 65k transactions per second is one of the major contributors to its overall scalability. Compared to Ethereum's 16 transactions per second, Solana offers a significantly faster and more efficient platform for developers and users. This kind of speed is important for many different applications, especially those that demand both high levels of throughput with low latency.
This unique combination of high transaction volume and network capacity make Solana one of the most competitive blockchains for building decentralized applications. Through enhanced technical capabilities, it increases capabilities to keep up with surging demand and foster an ever-growing ecosystem of technical innovation projects. As such, this makes Solana one of the most robust blockchain networks ever created, able to support a vast multitude of complex and resource-intensive decentralized applications.
Revenue Streams and DeFi Dominance
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications such as lending protocols and decentralized exchanges generate most of the revenue for the Solana protocol. They represent an astounding 83.7% of its overall revenues. This shows just how quickly it is being adopted and used as an alternative blockchain for a variety of financial services including lending, borrowing, and trading. The dominance of DeFi in Solana's revenue streams underscores the platform's suitability for these types of applications.
Wallets make up 9.6% of all of the protocol revenues going to Solana, one of the largest non-trading sources of income. This further underscores the need for accessible and secure wallet solutions across the Solana ecosystem. Wallets will be the key interface for accessing and managing these digital assets. Combined, their contribution to Subscription revenue shows a healthy, vibrant and active user base.
Infrastructure, NFTs, and gaming combined make up the other revenue streams, with 3.4%, 2.2%, and 0.9% of total revenue respectively. Though these sectors are smaller relative to DeFi and wallets, they show some of the new and expanding avenues of opportunity for Solana. We know the blockchain ecosystem is changing quickly. Tapping into these sectors is not only a catalyst for further economic growth, but helps to diversify revenue streams.
Market Performance and TVL Growth
With such heightened investor confidence and exuberance evident in the market, Solana’s price surged to an all-time high of US$263 in November 2024. This peak was driven by a combination of factors, including increased adoption, successful projects launching on the platform, and positive market sentiment. Yet the later decline to under US$188 by April 2025 is an example of the kind of wild swings that are typical in the cryptocurrency space.
Even with extreme volatility though, Solana’s price was still up 88% year over year, painting a bullish picture on the long-term outlook. This boom is a testament to the growing realization of Solana’s value proposition and its capacity to reshape the landscape of traditional finance. The price surge each year is a testament to the blockchain’s increasing adoption and investor confidence.
By December 2024, the Total Value Locked (TVL) on Solana had shot up to US$9.5 billion. This growth is a testament to the increasing capital being injected into its DeFi ecosystem. TVL is a key measure of a blockchain’s overall health and growth. Solana’s utterly-historic TVL represents just how popular and attractive Solana actually is to investors, especially developers. This impressive TVL highlights the increasing trust in Solana’s burgeoning DeFi ecosystem.
