Key Factors
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Over the previous 12 months, the Solana blockchain ecosystem generated practically $3 billion in income.
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Solana is now rising sooner than Ethereum, particularly in key areas akin to decentralized finance.
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Whereas Solana has big upside potential, it stays a unstable and extremely speculative cryptocurrency.
- 10 stocks we like better than Solana ›
In the crypto market, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) stays the unquestioned market chief. With a present market cap of $2.2 trillion, Bitcoin nonetheless accounts for a staggering 60% of the complete worth of the crypto market.
However there’s one other cryptocurrency that buyers must be conserving their eye on, and that is Solana (CRYPTO: SOL). This hypergrowth cryptocurrency has the potential to turn out to be the subsequent $1 trillion digital asset, and here is why.
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Turbo-charged progress for Solana
In October, funding agency 21Shares launched a brand new report on Solana, and fairly frankly, the numbers are eye-popping. Over the most up-to-date 12-month interval (October 2024 to September 2025), the Solana blockchain ecosystem generated $2.85 billion in income.
To place that quantity into perspective, that is roughly the identical annualized income ($3 billion) that the buzzy AI start-up Anthropic reported in Could. For good cause, 21Shares referred to Solana as “one in every of the most dynamic revenue-generating ecosystems in crypto.”
Picture supply: Getty Photographs.
Development appears to be occurring in every single place in the Solana ecosystem, from decentralized finance (DeFi) to decentralized bodily infrastructure (DePIN) and synthetic intelligence (AI). Sure, meme coin buying and selling on Solana’s super-fast decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges accounts for a very good chunk of the income being generated. Nonetheless, Solana’s income streams are actually extraordinarily diversified.
Solana vs. Ethereum
Solana is now rising a lot sooner than Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), due to its built-in velocity, value, and effectivity benefits. For instance, Solana can now course of greater than 100,000 transactions per second, whereas the foremost Ethereum blockchain can solely course of 15 to 30 transactions per second. No surprise builders, customers, and technologists are migrating from Ethereum to Solana. It is higher, cheaper, and sooner.
In November 2023, Cathie Wooden of Ark Make investments extolled the virtues of Solana, declaring that it was then on tempo to disrupt Ethereum. Even in areas the place Ethereum beforehand reigned supreme — akin to DeFi — Solana has gained market share. In any 24-hour interval, extra crypto buying and selling now takes place on the Solana blockchain than on the Ethereum blockchain.
Solana’s progress is all the extra spectacular, on condition that it’s attempting to beat an enormous first-mover benefit for Ethereum. Take into account: Ethereum launched in July 2015, whereas Solana launched to the public in March 2020.
Ethereum might have pioneered the idea of a smart contract blockchain community, however Solana is now taking it to a wholly new stage. 5 years after launch, Ethereum was producing roughly $10 million in income per thirty days. By the use of comparability, Solana is now producing $240 million in income per thirty days.
Can Solana sustain its fast progress?
The issue, nevertheless, is that Solana’s worth efficiency may be wildly unpredictable. In 2023, Solana soared by greater than 900%. However this 12 months, Solana is just up 2.5%. Furthermore, Solana is badly lagging behind Ethereum, which is up 21% in 2025. So all of that unbelievable progress has not but translated into superior crypto market efficiency for Solana.
It is as much as you to determine the cause why. One cause could be that buyers nonetheless view Solana as a blockchain for meme coin buying and selling, and never a lot else. So that they may very well be very cautious about bidding up the worth of Solana to unreasonable ranges based mostly on meme coin mania.
Another excuse could be that buyers nonetheless do not fairly belief Solana. In spite of everything, in November 2022, Solana bought caught up in the fiasco involving Sam Bankman-Fried and the cryptocurrency trade FTX. In a span of mere weeks, Solana collapsed in worth, and a few puzzled if it might survive.
Furthermore, it is unclear how a lot traction Solana is definitely gaining with its cellular crypto technique, which first rolled out in early 2023. That was when Solana launched its first cellular crypto cellphone to a lot fanfare. Nonetheless, this experimental new product was priced very similar to an iPhone, and did not get a variety of buzz past the early adopters. Solana launched a lower-priced choice earlier this 12 months, however is that sufficient to amass new customers?
The trail to a $1 trillion market cap
Presently, Solana has a market cap of $100 billion. So, to ensure that it to turn out to be a $1 trillion digital asset, it might want to enhance 10-fold in dimension. That is a tall activity for any cryptocurrency, even Bitcoin. So quite a bit might want to go proper.
At the very least, Solana might want to shed its picture as a blockchain primarily used for swapping meme cash and present that it has actual endurance on the subject of DeFi. But when that occurs — and it is a huge “if” — Solana may very well be on its technique to trillion-dollar digital asset standing.
Must you make investments $1,000 in Solana proper now?
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Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Idiot has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Idiot has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the writer and don’t essentially mirror these of Nasdaq, Inc.
