Solana’s on-chain GDP, or the collected fees of all apps, reached a peak in Q4, 2024. The growth was driven by Pump.fun and bots, with traffic flowing into the top DEX.
Solana achieved peak on-chain GDP in 2024, based on the fees for its top apps. The chain attracted more activity through meme token launches, both from Pump.fun and from outside projects.
As a result, Solana’s on-chain GDP rose to a total of $840M in the last quarter of 2024. For Q3, the chain attracted $268M in revenues. Solana’s validators are heavily subsidized to support this kind of traffic, and in most cases, the app teams retain all the revenues. Solana achieved one of the best quarterly results for all chains in history, potentially setting up the standard for on-chain products and for driving user demand.
Solana still operates at a loss
The main Solana network is still structured in a way that requires it to operate at a loss. The biggest expense is the payouts to validators, based on the current SOL issuance schedule.
Payouts in the last quarter of 2024 reached $324M in October, $490M in November and $515M in December, reflecting the increased activity. Despite the growth in fees, the main chain posted a loss each month, independent of the results of apps.
SOL issuance increased to levels not seen since 2021, boosting payouts to validators, in addition to priority fees and bribes. In Q4, the issuance of SOL was valued at $1.24B, compared to a $1.37B peak in the last quarter of 2024. The SOL inflation is at 4.74%, with a large part of the supply still locked.
SOL issuance accelerated at the end of 2024, almost reaching the levels from Q4, 2021. | Source: Blockworks
SOL burns reached a peak on January 19, when the launch of the Official Trump (TRUMP) token gave another boost to the ecosystem. Overall, economic activity on Solana helps keep inflation relatively low.
The peak usage of SOL arrives ahead of a large-scale token unlock expected in March. The unlock, valued at $263B, may put immediate pressure on the market. Currently, demand for SOL remains strong, due to the possibility to bet on new tokens or gain exposure to the more active memes.
As a result of the increased activity, Solana is now ahead in terms of L1 revenues compared to Ethereum for the past 90 days. On a 180-day basis, Ethereum still keeps its legacy advantage, but in the past three months of activity, Jito and Solana were steadily ahead. The Jito validator and MEV block builder achieved over $773M in revenues for the last 90-day period.
Solana gets a boost from bots and DeFi activity
Outside of Pump.fun, Solana is growing its high-liquidity DEX pairs and DeFi protocols. The chain still holds over $9.38B in total value locked, while stablecoin inflows have increased. Solana carries over $12.11B in stablecoins, predominantly USDC, after the latest series of mints by Circle.
The biggest drivers of Solana value and activity remained Jito, Raydium, Kamino Lend, and Jupiter. Solana retains a lower value locked due to its DeFi structure, but has a higher current economic activity compared to Ethereum.
Solana’s DEX and DeFi-related apps boosted activity in Q4. | Source: Dune Analytics
Bot activity also increased on Solana, becoming one of the big drivers of app revenues. Trojan took the top position among Solana bots, followed by the previous leader, BonkBot. Trojan tapped over $21K in average user volumes, achieving $828.4M in weekly trading volumes while signaling ongoing strength for Solana.
Bot activity closely tracks days of the most active token launches, reflecting Solana’s role as a source of speculative tokens. Outside those trades, Solana retains baseline activity from DeFi demand.
Solana also increased its overall share of trading bot usage, from a previous baseline of around 85% up to 91% of all users. Only around 5% of bot users are choosing Ethereum, due to its higher fees for fast transactions, as well as the potential for sandwich attacks and MEV exploits.
Despite the increasing revenues, market prices are still considered low. SOL traded at $202.63, while Raydium (RAY) returned to $5.50. RAY is yet to repeat its levels from the 2021 bull market, despite now carrying over 30% of all DEX activity.
