This has been a strong year for Solana. The ecosystem has demonstrated extraordinary growth across nearly all metrics, marking several milestones including:
● Becoming the leading platform for new developers
● Hosting the largest decentralized trading volumes across all blockchains
● Surpassing Ethereum in fee generation, at times
We’d like to walk through some of this progress in more detail and explain how this reinforces our conviction in Solana’s strong position in the blockchain landscape.
Users exploded as monthly active addresses hit160 million by December - a 26x increase from late 2023.
Trading dominance: Solana's main decentralized exchange (Raydium) became the top exchange globally, processing $125 billion in November alone.
The token creation ecosystem we highlighted last quarter kept growing fast. Solana went from under 1% of new tokens in late2023 to over 90% of new DEX tokens today, showing how its technical strengths are drawing in new builders and traders.
Solana is becoming the top platform for emerging crypto trends, even if they don't start there, as seen with the AI agent sector. Although this trend began on Base (an Ethereum Layer2 by Coinbase), Solana quickly became the dominant venue, capturing 64% of mindshare and over 50% of market capitalization. By December, AI agent tokens made up over 10% of Solana’s DEX volume, which is more than double the 5% share on Base.
Perhaps the most significant milestone in Q4was Solana’s emergence as the leading blockchain platform for developer activity.
According to Electric Capital’s Developer Report, Solana attracted nearly 8,000 new developers in 2024, making it the blockchain ecosystem that attracted the most new developers. This is the first time since 2016 any platform has surpassed Ethereum in attracting new developers.
Solana ecosystem’s developer growth at scale has been particularly impressive against the broader market backdrop. While the overall crypto industry saw an average 9% decline in developer activity, Solana achieved an 83% year-over-year growth in monthly active developers. This stands in stark contrast to other major ecosystems: Ethereum (-22%), Polygon (-49%), and Cosmos (-15%) all experienced significant declines.
Solana’s appeal to developers comes from its strong tech, growing adoption, and active ecosystem. Sustained growth through Q4 suggests this is a lasting change, not a temporary cycle.
Network revenue growth is compelling. The "Real Economic Value" (network transaction fees plus "MEV" tips, which is similar to payment for order flow) is the key measure. Based on this, Solana generated approximately $400 million in revenue in November, which is an annualized rate of about $5 billion, though this moderated slightly in December. However, monthly revenues may vary significantly, as past performance is not indicative of future results.
Solana's growth was so significant that its revenue began to surpass Ethereum's, generating 37% more revenue in Q4 compared to being just 2% of Ethereum's revenue in Q4 of the previous year. This highlights a meaningful gain in market share.
We are monitoring two key events:
● Spot Solana ETF: We believe an ETF is highly probable and its positive impact is currently underestimated by the market. Four issuers have already filed applications.
● FTX Vesting in March 2025: A large vest of 8.4million SOL (~$1.8B) is scheduled. We believe the impact will be moderated by Solana's large daily trading volume (~$3B) and that the tokens were bought by long-term holders. New demand from a potential ETF approval could also offset the sale.
We remain strongly convicted in Solana based on near-term dynamics and maintain high long-term confidence.
● 2024 Performance: Solana had a transformative year, appreciating +87% (with +24%in Q4).
● 2025 Conviction: Leading growth in new developers and revenue generation, combined with growing institutional interest, suggests we are still in the early stages of Solana’s mainstream adoption.
This letter is for informational purposes only and does not contain all information pertinent to an investment decision. Nothing in this letter constitutes an investment recommendation or an offer of investment advisory services. This letter cannot be relied upon in making an investment decision. Nothing contained herein constitutes an offer to sell, or a solicitation to buy, any securities. This letter contains information Solana Company believes to be reliable, and has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but Solana Company makes no representation or warranty (express or implied) of any nature, nor accepts any responsibility or liability of any kind, with respect to the fairness, accuracy, completeness, or reasonableness of the information or opinions contained herein. Analyses and opinions contained herein (including market commentary, statements or forecasts) reflect the judgment of Solana Company as of the date this letter was published and may contain elements of subjectivity (including certain assumptions) or be based on incomplete information. Investment decisions cannot be based solely on the graphs and/or charts presented herein. The graphs and charts herein are created by Pantera otherwise, the source is cited within the graph or chart.
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