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Solana Takes The Crown: CoinGecko Ranks It The Best, Leaving Ethereum Behind In Key Metric

The race to achieve the fastest blockchain transaction processing speeds is heating up, Solana (SOL) is in the spotlight as a new report from crypto data aggregator CoinGecko reveals some surprising findings. 

The study analyzes the real-world transaction per second (TPS) performance of a range of large blockchain networks, both Ethereum-based and non-Ethereum (ETH) Virtual Machine (EVM) protocols.

Solana Emerges As The Undisputed Speed Champion

According to the findings, Solana has proven to be the fastest among large blockchains, with its actual daily average transactions per second (TPS) reaching a record high of 1,504 on April 6th, 202. Notably, this figure makes Solana 46 times faster than Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Furthermore, Solana’s TPS is more than 5 times faster than Polygonm (MATIC), which currently holds the highest TPS among Ethereum scaling solutions.

Solana

According to CoinGecko, this demonstrates the superior processing power of the non-EVM blockchain and its ability to handle a large influx of transactions, especially during periods of heightened market activity, such as the recent Memecoin mania, specifically within the Solana network.

However, it’s important to note that despite Solana’s performance, the blockchain has only achieved 1.6% of its “theoretical maximum speed” of 65,000 TPS. This suggests that there is still significant room for improvement, and the network’s upcoming upgrades will be closely watched to see how quickly it can record even higher real TPS.

Ethereum Scaling Solutions Lag Behind Non-EVM Blockchains

The second-fastest blockchain in the study is another non-EVM protocol, Sui (SUI), which recorded its highest real TPS of 854 in July 2023 as the on-chain game Sui 8192 gained popularity. Other fast blockchains among the non-EVMs include The Open Network (TON) at 175 TPS and Near Protocol (NEAR) at 118 TPS.

In contrast, the non-EVM blockchains that have recorded relatively lower real processing speeds are Aptos (49 TPS), Starknet (12 TPS), Bitcoin (11 TPS), and Thorchain (2 TPS). 

Collectively, the 8 non-EVM large blockchains have an average peak TPS of 284, which is 3.9 times faster than the 17 largest EVM and EVM-compatible blockchains, which have an average of just 74 TPS.

The EVM-compatible blockchain that has achieved the fastest real TPS is BNB Smart Chain (BSC), which recorded 378 TPS on December 7th, 2023, amid the surge in on-chain activity driven by the inscriptions craze. This performance places BSC as the fastest Ethereum-based blockchain, though it still lags behind the top non-EVM protocols.

Similarly, the surge driven by inscriptions allowed Polygon to record 190 TPS on November 16th, 2023, making it the fastest among the largest Ethereum scaling solutions and 8.4 times faster than Ethereum itself. However, the leading non-EVM blockchains still outpacing even Polygon’s impressive speed.

Solana

At press time, SOL was trading at $168, up nearly 7% in the last 24 hours and registering an impressive 720% gain year-to-date. 

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com 

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Solana Enhances Privacy Offerings As SOL’s Uptrend Persists With 4% Gains

Solana (SOL), a layer 1 proof-of-stake blockchain, has introduced version 1.16, which enhances user privacy through “Confidential Transfers.” This update includes encrypted Solana Program Library (SPL) token transactions, ensuring confidentiality rather than anonymity. 

The adoption of version 1.16 by Solana’s network of validators has reached a majority after ten months of development and an audit by Halborn, a blockchain security firm.

Solana Labs Rolls Out Privacy-Enhancing Update

According to the announcement made by Solana’s infrastructure provider Helius, The update has undergone rigorous testing, with v1.16 running on testnet since June 7, 2023. 

Volunteer and canary nodes have reportedly played a crucial role in identifying and resolving issues during the testing phase. Solana Labs has also deployed canary nodes on mainnet-beta to monitor the stability of v1.16 under real-world conditions.

Solana employs a feature gate system to prevent consensus-breaking changes, ensuring that validators running older versions do not fork off the canonical chain. 

What’s more, Consensus-breaking changes now require a Solana Improvement Document (SIMD) and greater transparency through documentation.

Confidential Transfers, introduced by Token2022, utilize zero-knowledge proofs to encrypt balances and transaction amounts of  SPL tokens, prioritizing user privacy. 

Looking ahead, Solana Labs plans to adopt a more agile release cycle, targeting smaller releases approximately every three months. 

Room For Growth

According to a Nansen report, Solana has witnessed a significant surge in its Total Value Locked (TVL) throughout this year, nearly doubling since the beginning of 2023, and currently boasting a TVL of 30.95 million SOL. 

Solana

Monthly transactions on the Solana network have remained relatively stable, with an increase in vote transactions, encompassing both vote and non-vote transactions.

Furthermore, Nansen highlights that Solana has implemented innovative solutions such as state compression and isolated fee markets to address prominent issues within its tech stack.

One notable solution, state compression, has substantially reduced the cost of non-fungible token (NFT) minting on Solana more than 2,000 times. 

 State Compression Unleashes Affordable NFT Minting

For instance, the cost of minting 1 million NFTs before the introduction of state compression would have amounted to approximately $253,000. In contrast, with state compression enabled, the cost is significantly reduced to just $113. 

In comparison, minting a similar collection size on Ethereum would cost approximately $33.6 million, and on Polygon, it would amount to around $32,800.

Furthermore, the liquid staking landscape on Solana is experiencing rapid growth, with leading platforms like Marinade Finance, Lido Finance, and Jito taking the forefront. 

However, despite this growth, the current amount of staked SOL in Solana’s liquid staking protocols accounts for less than 3% of the total staked SOL, indicating substantial room for expansion.

It is worth noting that the report by Nansen raises concerns about the uncertainty surrounding FTX/Alameda’s SOL holdings, as FTX holds over 71.8 million SOL, representing approximately 17% of the circulating supply and 13% of the total supply. 

While this situation may present temporary risks to Solana’s growth trajectory, it is essential to monitor its impact closely.

Solana

On the other hand, the native token of the protocol, SOL, continues to exhibit substantial gains across all timeframes. The token is trading at $23.68, reflecting an increase of over 4% in the past 24 hours.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

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Solana Clears 100 Billion Transaction Count As NFTs Gain Prominence

The Solana network had been one of the winners of 2021 after gaining widespread popularity among crypto users. Its incredibly fast transaction times had been one of the pulls, as well as the ability for developers to create decentralized applications (DApps) on the network. Since the beginning of 2022, the network has been racing toward an important milestone, which it has now successfully broken through. 

Solana Surpasses 100 Billion Transactions

Solana’s transaction count had been ramping up over the last couple of months. In just 2 years, it has become one of the most used blockchains in the space. Solana had taken the decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) space by storm, now commanding the second-largest market share of the NFT space of any blockchain.

Last week, the network made it past the 100 billion transaction mark. Interestingly, the network is still in Beta testing, and it has grown so much. It had been able to grow above the delay transaction count of its largest competitor Ethereum after it clocked more than 40 million daily transactions. 

SOL price trending at $35 | Source: SOLUSD on TradingView.com

Solana continues to maintain its high transaction processing even with the massive growth it has experienced. At the time of this writing, the transactions per second (TPS) in the last 30 minutes were averaging around 3,000 TPS, according to data from Solana Explorer.

SOL NFTs Rival Ethereum

Ethereum NFTs had been the dominant tokens in the market and, understandably, remain so, even at this time. However, there have been numerous developments in the Solana NFT ecosystem that shows that the network is gearing up to rival Ethereum in this regard.

One of the most recent NFT launches on the Solana blockchain, the y00ts NFT collection, is now billed as the “most hyped” NFT launch in history. It came from a critically acclaimed team behind the Dead Gods NFT collection. It sparked renewed interest in SOL NFTs, which helped to push the floor price higher.

On Monday, Sentiment reported that SOL NFT sales had crossed 1.65 million. Solana NFT ecosystem Metaplex had also reported a significant uptick in the number of NFTs that are being minted on the platform over the month of September. 

However, it is hard to predict how long this growth trend will last, given that interest in the NFT space, in general, is down. The number of new addresses that are using NFTs since its peak in mid-September is down more than 60%, from 30k to 8k.

Featured image from The Market Periodical, charts from TradingView.com

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Solana Nears 100 Billion Transaction Milestone As Price Aims For $40

Solana has made a name for itself in the decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible token (NFT) space over the last few years. Its growth has seen it become one of the largest contenders for the leading smart contract network Ethereum, as it presents faster and cheaper transaction options. Its transaction count had quickly multiplied in light of this, and now, the cryptocurrency has neared another important milestone.

Almost 100 Billion Transactions

With only two years of operations under its belt, Solana has quickly grown in prominence among crypto investors. With an average of 3,000 transactions per second (TPS), the total transaction count on the Solana blockchain is like a runner on steroids.

Presently, the total transaction count on the network has surpassed 97.1 billion. This was the count as of Friday when this report was written. Given that the number was around 96 billion on Thursday, Solana’s transaction count is growing at around 1 billion per day. This rate would see the network hit the 100 billion mark before the weekend is over. 

To put this in perspective, the current daily transaction count on the Ethereum network is a little over 1 million at 13 TPS. The upgrade to ETH proof of stake will reportedly allow Ethereum to process 100,000 TPS, but for now, it continues to lag behind competitors such as Solana in terms of speed and capacity. 

Solana Looks To Grow Further

Over the last day, digital assets across the cryptocurrency market have seen some impressive gains. Solana grew more than 7% in this 24-hour period to bring its price above $35, but even this point does not look to be the highest for the cryptocurrency.

Since SOL is now sitting above its 20-day moving average, the selling pressure in the short term has begun to ease up, giving the digital asset room to establish support at $35 and target the $40 level from this point. 

SOL breaks above $35 | Source: SOLUSD on TradingView.com

Solana’s growth in other aspects besides its transaction count is also working to prop up its price. Most notably, the growth of NFT trading on the blockchain. Magic Eden, the leading NFT marketplace on Solana, is fast catching up to OpenSea. 

In the last 7 days, OpenSea saw a total of 149,488 unique traders, where Magic Eden saw 101,349 unique traders. The popularity of collections, such as Okay Bears, DeGods, and now Yoots, has also helped to increase the popularity of the blockchain and bring new demand to the market. 

This demand for the digital asset for trading activities has been the biggest driver of its recovery. If the momentum holds up, then SOL is likely to test $40 before the weekend is over.

Featured image from CNBCTV18, chart from TradingView.com

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