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Solana: one blockchain, half the users
Key Takeaways
- In June 2025, Solana matched the combined monthly active users of Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, and other major chains, highlighting a dramatic shift in user engagement across blockchain ecosystems.
- Solana is generating real revenue from deep user engagement across DeFi, gaming, payments, and NFTs – proving its monetisation engine is already in motion.
In June 2025, Solana’s monthly active users matched the total of key Layer 1 (L1) and Layer 2 (L2) blockchains. You read that right. One blockchain, Solana, is pulling the same number of users as Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, and countless others – combined.
That is not hype. It is raw market domination, and it sends a clear message: Solana is where the people are.
Figure 1: Share of monthly active users
Source: Artemis Terminal, WisdomTree. 18 July 2025. Other covers Bitcoin, Aptos, Sui, Ethereum, Polygon POS, Arbitrum, OP Mainnet, Avalanche C-Chain. Historical performance is not an indication of future performance and any investment may go down in value.
Dominating every vertical
Solana is not just playing in multiple verticals – it is dominating them. From decentralised finance (DeFi) to gaming, payments to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), social apps to microtransactions – this is a chain firing on all cylinders:
- DeFi: Solana allows for extremely fast and cheap trading of digital assets, including lending and derivatives platforms. Unlike some blockchains, it can handle high activity volumes without slowing down, making it ideal for serious crypto traders.
- Gaming: developers can build smooth-running, real-time multiplayer games on Solana. The blockchain’s performance enables Web3 games that feel like traditional ones, but with the added benefit of player-owned economies.
- Payments: Solana Pay enables instant, almost fee-free transactions, making it feel like sending a message. Compared to traditional payment systems, it is faster and more efficient.
- NFTs: Solana is becoming a hub for NFTs thanks to a feature called “compressed NFTs”, making it cheap to create many digital collectables. This has attracted a wave of creators and projects.
- Social apps: apps like Dialect use Solana to let users send messages and manage identities on the blockchain. These apps aim to give users more control and ownership over their data.
- Microtransactions: Solana's speed and low costs for small payments – such as tipping in messaging apps or trading viral meme coins – make it one of the few practical choices.
This is not surface-level activity. It is deep, sticky user engagement. No other chain comes close to Solana’s breadth and depth across monetizable use cases.
Revenue engines in motion
Where there is usage, there is money. Solana is converting engagement into revenue faster than any other chain. Unlike ecosystems reliant on speculative hype, Solana’s monetisation engine is fuelled by real users doing real things, constantly.
Figure 2: Daily transactions, in millions
Source: Artemis Terminal, WisdomTree. 18 July 2025. Historical performance is not an indication of future performance and any investment may go down in value.
- Transactions fees: Solana handles tens of millions of transactions every day. Even though each one costs less than a cent, the volume makes it add up quickly. These small fees are essential as apps like trading bots, games, and tipping platforms rely on them to work.
- Extra fees during busy times: When many people use Solana simultaneously, users can pay a little more to get their transactions processed faster. This system helps Solana earn more when the network is in high demand and is especially useful for trading apps and automated bots.
- Low-cost NFTs: Solana makes it cheap to create vast numbers of NFTs (digital collectables). This has opened the door for projects such as DRiP and Tensor to build large-scale businesses around creators and digital art.
- Everyday spending: Some apps on Solana, like Helium Mobile or certain game marketplaces, have regular people spending real money – not just moving tokens around for speculation. This real-world usage is still rare in crypto but growing on Solana.
- Growing DeFi ecosystem: Solana has its own financial apps where people can lend, borrow, and trade. These platforms earn fees that support developers, users, and validators. Tools like Jupiter are even using advanced trading strategies to boost profits, similar to what you might see in traditional finance.
Solana is not waiting for theoretical monetisation “someday”. It is happening now. The monetisation loop – users, usage, fees – is spinning, and the flywheel is accelerating.
The verdict
Solana is not just leading – it is executing. It owns the users, drives the revenue, and leads the developer momentum with real-world traction, not vapourware.
If you are still clinging to old assumptions about blockchain winners, it is time to wake up. The future is already here, and it is being built and monetised on Solana.
1ETP = exchange traded product.
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