As 2025 draws to a close, Solana (SOL) has solidified its reputation as the "people’s blockchain." According to the latest year-end reports, Solana has captured a staggering 26.8% of all global blockchain traffic, officially outperforming Ethereum and Base in user mindshare for the second year in a row.
Solana’s dominance isn't just about speed; it’s about accessibility. With transaction success rates stabilizing at 99% and fees remaining under a penny, the network has become the primary hub for:
Retail Trading: Platforms like Jupiter and Raydium have seen record volumes, driven by the continued popularity of memecoins and fast-execution trading bots.
Institutional Inflows: U.S. spot Solana ETFs have crossed $750 million in cumulative net inflows since their launch, proving that Wall Street is increasingly comfortable with SOL as a long-term asset.
Real-World Integration: From Visa’s $3.5 billion settlement pilot to Ondo Finance bringing tokenized stocks to the chain, Solana is proving it can handle enterprise-scale demand.
While the broader market saw a "Christmas Eve" dip with SOL trading around $125, technical analysts remain highly bullish for the start of 2026. The network is currently in a "consolidation phase," absorbing nearly $90 million in long liquidations. However, on-chain data shows a massive outflow of SOL from exchanges into private wallets—a classic sign of accumulation by "whales."
The much-anticipated Firedancer upgrade, currently being rolled out to validators, is expected to push network capacity to 1 million transactions per second (TPS). Many experts predict this will be the catalyst to push SOL back toward the $210–$230 range by early next year.
Despite the competition from new Layer 2 solutions, Solana’s "monolithic" approach (everything happening on one fast layer) provides a seamless user experience that "fragmented" networks struggle to match. As we head into 2026, the focus is shifting from "can it work?" to "how far can it scale
