Solana Pulls Ahead in Key Metrics—But It’s Not Just About Price
The first half of 2025 has been a big one for Solana, at least according to Helius’ latest ecosystem report. While crypto headlines usually fixate on price swings, this one digs into something more concrete: real economic value, or REV. Basically, it’s a measure of how much people are *actually* paying to use the network—not just speculating on tokens. And since October 2024, Solana’s been leading the pack.
By January, that figure hit $551 million. There was even a single day—January 19—where daily REV spiked to $56.8 million, topping Ethereum and Bitcoin *combined*. Part of that comes from Jito tips, which made up nearly half to two-thirds of monthly REV. Turns out, users are willing to pay extra for faster transactions, which suggests the whole MEV (maximum extractable value) thing isn’t just theoretical anymore. Validators are benefiting without making regular fees unbearable.
Handling the Chaos—Cheaply
What’s wild is how stable fees stayed even during traffic surges. Remember the TRUMP memecoin mania in January? Solana handled it without median fees budging much from $0.003. Daily transactions averaged around 162 million, with slots finalizing in roughly 390 milliseconds. And no, the network hasn’t gone down since February 2024—a fact fans won’t let you forget.
There’s more coming, too. The Alpenglow upgrade, still in testing, promises to slash finality times to 100–150 ms and cut validator costs. If it works, running a node could cost as little as $75,000 to break even. Not exactly pocket change, but a lot lower than some competitors.
Beyond Speculation: Real Use Cases
Solana’s not just for traders. Stablecoin activity exploded, jumping from $1.5 billion to $11.7 billion in a year and a half. Circle alone minted $1.75 billion USDC in May. Then there’s Helium Mobile, which added 300,000 subscribers in Q1, and Hivemapper, which mapped 30% of the world’s roads (crowdsourced, no less). Even niche stuff like Baxus, a tokenized-asset marketplace, saw crypto payments spike 11,500%, with half of buyers coming from overseas.
DEX volumes? Solana settled 81% of all trades in 2024. Jupiter’s perpetual swaps platform did $1 billion daily, claiming 79% of the on-chain perps market. And nearly half of all swaps were executed by bots—take that as you will.
It’s not perfect, of course. Solana’s still behind Ethereum in total value locked, though $8–9 billion isn’t shabby. JitoSOL holds about 39% of staking share, which feels healthy but not dominant.
The report doesn’t predict the future, but it’s hard to ignore the traction. Whether that lasts? Well, that’s crypto.
