Solana dominates other chains based on its aggregated app revenues. The metric may mean Solana will keep attracting more developers with the promise of a more profitable app.
Solana apps attract nearly 57% of revenues by chain, displacing Ethereum’s influence. This trend accelerated in the last quarter of 2024 when the meme token market had another active season, followed by the launch of AI agents.
Since all activities on Solana happen directly on the L1 chain, there are multiple requirements to transact and trade successfully. As a result, the top revenue producers were the Raydium DEX and the main block builder, JitoSOL. Metaplex was in the third spot, showing the potential of Solana-based platforms for token creation.
Solana apps achieved $751M in revenues for the last quarter of 2024, while Ethereum’s app ecosystem only generated $314M. The app fees usually stay with the team, with a few exceptions, such as offering revenue-sharing incentives. For some, the extraction of value is a problem, especially for Solana, which has the biggest expenses for each $1 in revenues.
Solana started to surpass Ethereum in terms of revenues around April 2024, when the Dencun upgrade significantly cut the rents received from L2 chains. Due to previous periods of gains, Ethereum was still the bigger gainer for the whole year, but the balance may shift completely in 2025.
Ethereum takes up just 18% of app revenue, while Base draws in 9%. Even with the addition of Arbitrum and Base, the Ethereum ecosystem lags behind Solana in terms of app free generation. For Ethereum, the most productive apps include Tether and Uniswap, which are linked to the highest activity levels.
Despite being the go-to chain for lending and DeFi, Ethereum and its ecosystem lagged behind the economic activity of Solana. The single chain displaced Ethereum and its top L2 in terms of active, user-directed apps that also generated regular revenue streams.
App revenues show the economic value of a chain and the possibility of extracting value from user activity. Pump.fun is one example of a cash cow app that produces outsized revenues from a growing user base.
With the rise of AI agents and new ways to issue tokens, Solana may become more appealing for building the new generation of crypto platforms. At this point, top apps produce most of the revenues, but the platform model allowing new launches proved the most successful. Solana hosted multiple new trends, including AI agents, AI platform tokens, and DeSci.
Solana begins attracting more developers
The trend of fat fee apps helped Solana attract more developers in the past year. In 2024, based on the inflow of new developers, Solana surpassed Ethereum. During the bull market, Solana also attracted 7,625 developers, while Ethereum attracted 6,456 contributors.
Solana still has only 55 core developers, with the majority linked to newer projects. Core development activity remained at a baseline level for the past year. New product launches concentrated around memes and AI personalities.
Developers and app builders tend to follow the chains with the biggest chance of inviting users and producing revenues. Solana far surpasses other chains in terms of weekly and monthly active users, setting a series of records in the past year.
SOL still expected to move to a higher price range
As a result of its active app ecosystem, SOL tokens are expected to continue rising in 2025. After essentially starting from scratch, Solana proves to be one of the few scalable chains. Failed transactions are also one of the main sources of revenues, creating a market for block-builders with priority fees and bribes.
SOL still hovers just under $200 despite the expansion in the past year. The asset rallied and turned into one of the main venues for builders in the past year, surpassing previous peak performers. If the chain continues to outperform and becomes the central hub for crypto activity, SOL is expected to rally to a new price range.
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