Solana, the Layer-1 blockchain, has once again achieved record-breaking network revenues. On October 23, Solana generated approximately $8.7 million in economic value from network activity, surpassing the previous day’s total of just under $8 million. This data comes from Blockworks Research, according to their data analytics manager, Dan Smith, on the X platform. The $8.7 million figure includes all revenue sources, such as base fees, priority fees, and tips, among others.
Solana’s SOL token has emerged as a strong competitor to Ethereum, outperforming Ether by an impressive 600% since 2023. The total value locked (TVL) on Solana has skyrocketed from less than $250 million at the beginning of 2023 to over $6.8 billion as of October 24, as reported by DefiLlama.
In July, Solana surpassed Ethereum in weekly total fees for the first time, generating approximately $25 million in weekly revenue compared to Ethereum’s $21 million, according to Blockworks Research. Solana’s rise to prominence has been fueled by a frenzy of celebrity coin trading, primarily taking place on Solana-based memecoin platforms like Pump.fun and Moonshot.
Furthermore, SOL is expected to be the next cryptocurrency included in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States, following Bitcoin (BTC) and ETH. On October 21, Raydium, a decentralized exchange based on Solana, surpassed the Ethereum network in 24-hour revenue. Raydium generated $3.4 million in fee revenue during the day, surpassing Ethereum’s $3.35 million, according to DefiLlama’s data on daily revenue from protocol fees.
Ethereum is still recovering from a significant decline in revenue after the network’s March Dencun upgrade reduced transaction fees by approximately 95%. However, the Ethereum network is projected to generate up to $66 billion in annual free cash flow by 2030, according to Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of digital asset research, as stated in September. Sigel highlighted that Ethereum processed around $4 trillion in settlement value and an additional $5 trillion in stablecoin transfers annually, surpassing the scale of PayPal and approaching networks like Visa.